


beneath the moon and under the sun

by pududoll (aprilclash)



Series: beneath the moon and under the sun [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Bloodletting, Demisexuality, Domestic Bliss, Light Angst, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Pining, Slow Burn, mentions of heavy drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-04-20 22:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14271195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aprilclash/pseuds/pududoll
Summary: Donghyuck has a crush on his roommate. Who is a vampire. And most certainly doesn't like him back. (Maybe).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yaori94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaori94/gifts).



> Let's be real I just wanted an excuse to write markhyuck cuddling at home in front of the tv that's it that's the fic everything else exists just so I have an excuse to write markhyuck being horribly domestic in their house. Plots are overrated anyway.  
> -I wrote this fic for twitter user @yaori94, so I hope you like it and you won't hate me for publishing only half of it happy birthday ilu <3<3<3  
> -It's really slow and a little (a lot) different from my usual style, but I wanted to try something new. Beware of the slow burn and of Donghyuck being a lot of shades of OOC (he came out really different from every headcanon I've ever had of him).  
> -Ha Minhyuk doesn't exist, don't look him up. I needed someone who could play the bad guy and then I realized I didn't want anyone I know to be the bad guy, for once, so I made him up.  
> -Everyone is OLDER than their real age, they're in university all of them. (And anyway the rating won't change. We'll all be lucky if I manage to make them kiss before the end of the fic.)  
> -Also, title came from Billie Holiday's Night & Day.  
> 

Donghyuck is used to the most disparate reactions when he says his roommate is a vampire. Most people send him worried glances, eyes immediately skirting to his neck to look for signs of debauchery, and Donghyuck wants to roll his eyes because, seriously people, most vampires are polite enough to heal their own fucking bites or to gallantly bite somewhere less visible, and Mark Lee is the most polite of them all. Some people are a little dumbfounded, like, “Is it legal to live with a vampire? Isn’t that against at least three hundred safety regulations?” No, it is not, and they need to review their civic education notions. Some people shake their head and look at Donghyuck with something akin to condescendence, a knowing look that whispers _if something happens to you, don’t say I didn’t warn you._ Thank you very much, that’s the door. Some people, the worse, are horrified by this unnatural promiscuity and they don’t bother hiding it. Donghyuck usually ends up laughing in their face. Some people don’t care – they’re Donghyuck’s favorite – and the most stupid people – read: Donghyuck’s friends – think it’s the coolest thing in the world, to which Donghyuck snorts and shakes his head because no, really, Mark is a loser.

Mark is a loser. There’s no other way to put it. It’s a bit sad, all things considered, because all of Mark’s vampire friends are quite cool. One would think that after spending half of an eternity in the company of one Lee Taeyong, Mark would’ve developed some sort of inner glow. He’s a vampire, vampires are cool and aloof and neat and imposing and dangerous and freaking sexy. Mark is... none of the above. He’s shy, a little nerd who wears pink slippers at home and likes history trivia a bit too much. He drinks blood from a Starbucks tumbler and abhors garlic bread. Instead of spending his free time stalking clubs in search of a new victim, he stays at home, waits for Donghyuck to come back completely wasted and holds Donghyuck’s hair away from his face as he throws up in the toilet, his hands cold against Donghyuck’s heated skin.

“Come on, Hyuckie, a little more.”

Donghyuck groans. Even Mark’s voice is soothing, his fingers delicate against his temples, keeping him grounded. He gags, his stomach convulsing around the last remains of bile and alcohol, and Mark shushes him quietly.

“Can you stand?” he asks.

“I’m deader than you,” is Donghyuck’s reply. At least it tears a chuckle out of Mark.

“I doubt it,” he says, somewhere above Donghyuck. “But you are a mess... What happened?”

Donghyuck lets himself fall on the floor and leans his cheek on Mark’s leg. He probably smells horrible, alcohol and sweat and makeup and vomit, but Mark doesn’t flinch. He pets Donghyuck’s head, fingers combing his sweaty bangs. Sometimes, Donghyuck wonders what he did to deserve Mark Lee and his neverending patience and his unbreakable calm and the cute way he blinks when he doesn’t know how to approach the topic.

“You want to talk about it?”

What’s there to talk about? The fact that Donghyuck is a dumb university student who likes to drink himself silly? Or the fact that he tries so hard only to end up being rejected by the guy who kissed him first? He didn’t even want to kiss Ha Minhyuk that much. Why would he want to kiss a closeted jock who likes him when he can just crush hopelessly on his impossibly hot vampire roommate who doesn’t see him as anything more than a baby friend?

“No,” Donghyuck whispers, feeling the first sting of tears. Mark nods. He probably knows what’s happened, Donghyuck realizes. Not everything, but he must have a faint idea. Stupid vampires and their stupid superpowers. Stupid Mark, who can probably smell someone else’s hands on Donghyuck and instead of acting disgusted, instead of disapproving, cards his fingers through Donghyuck’s hair, a little awkward, a little fond.

“Then take a shower, brush your teeth. I want to put you to sleep before sun rises.”

☾

When Donghyuck wakes up a good thirteen hours later, it’s already late afternoon. The day glided past him while he slept and the sky is darkening, pale blue melting into indigo, melting into orange, melting into blue again. Donghyuck’s head is pounding and his insides are churning from hunger and nausea at the same time.

He opens the fridge and rummages behind Mark’s blood until he finds some jam and butter. He makes himself a sandwich and eats it, drinks some water and wonders if the pain he’s feeling calls for a painkillers. It doesn’t, but Donghyuck takes one anyway, together with another glass of water.

He finds his phone on the verge of death, pitifully blinking red inside his coat pocket. There are three missed calls from Jeno and a lot of unread messages about yesterday night.

Yesterday night was... a mess.

Donghyuck shouldn’t have followed that senior from his Microbiology course outside and he shouldn’t have let that senior kiss him. He probably should’ve punched him when the first thing the guy said after the kiss was, “I’m not gay”. Except he couldn’t have, not really. Ha Minhyuk is a TA, Donghyuck can’t even fathom what punching him would do to his university and social life. But he shouldn’t have followed him outside, to the back of the club, that’s kinda final. Regret pools heavy in his stomach and he feels like retching again.

“Are you okay?”

Donghyuck jumps a little, startled, as Mark appears in his peripheral vision and sends him a worried look.

“Yes, I... Just a little shaken.”

“You shouldn’t drink so much. You’ll burn your liver like that.”

It’s not judgmental, just a little concerned. He walks beyond Donghyuck to catch a bag of blood from the kitchen, thrusts a straw in the hole and goes back to the couch, where he claims the pillow next to Donghyuck and curls an arm around Donghyuck’s shoulder.

“Are you going out tonight?” Donghyuck asks.

He receives a grimace. “I have to. Coven meeting. Everyone will be there.”

“Don’t act like it’s a bad thing,” Donghyuck says, pouting. “You’re gonna spend your night with handsome people, I’d pay to be in your shoes.”

Mark adjusts his glasses and sighs.

“Are _you_ going out tonight? I won’t be home to hold your head while you throw up, this time.”

Donghyuck blushes a little. “Thanks for that. I might join my friends later. Jeno mentioned going for drinks with Jaemin.”

Mark shrugs.

“Just be careful, Hyuckie. It’s full of assholes out there. Don’t let them take advantage of you.”

That’s easier said than done, but Donghyuck doesn’t say it out loud. Mark worries a little too much, it makes Donghyuck’s heart flutter like butterfly wings.

☾

It took Donghyuck a surprising amount of time to realize his roommate was, indeed, a vampire.

“I thought he just had a fucked-up sleeping pattern,” he says, when Jeno calls him out on it. “Like, he kept all the blood in tumblers, how should I have known he wasn’t just a fan of protein shakes who worked the night shift at the lab?”

“Yes but... Three weeks? How did you even find out?” Jaemin asks.

“He told me to fucking stop bringing garlic bread at home. Legitly sat me down and had a talk with me on the dos and don’ts of vampire roommates and in the end, since I was more confused than ever, he told me he was a vampire.”

There’s a moment of silence as Jaemin fills their glasses again, before Jeno comments, “Well, if that doesn’t sound like Mark-hyung.”

Soju burns Donghyuck’s throat and he grimaces. He feels it slosh inside his chest, smoldering him from the inside. The lights hanging from the ceiling dance in front of his eyes.

“More soju?” asks Jaemin, but Donghyuck shakes his head.

“Thanks but no thanks... Mark scolded me yesterday night. I came home completely wasted.”

Jaemin smirks behind his shot glass. “Oh, now, was he worried about you?”

His eyes are knowing, his tone too hinting. It’s giving Donghyuck unnecessary hope and a headache.

“Shut up, it’s not like that. Mark is just nice.”

Mark is too nice. And Donghyuck has a type. The type who breaks his heart over and over again. Mark would never do that to him. His fuckboy percentual is so low it could as well be negative. Donghyuck can’t afford to fall for people like Mark – nice and smart and cute and careful and just a tiny bit hot – because people like Mark never fall for Donghyuck.

He pours himself more soju, disregarding what he said not even five minutes ago, just to drown out Jaemin’s babbling about how hot it must be to kiss a vampire – wouldn’t it be cold, instead? – and how vampires must be great in bed. 

“It’s all about the stamina, man.”

Jeno claps him on the back to tell him to shut up and Donghyuck drinks enough to feel a comfortable buzz settling in his head somewhere between his eyes, but deeper, where he keeps all his inappropriate Mark thoughts. They talk about classes and exams and Jeno’s part-time job. Donghyuck doesn’t tell Jeno and Jaemin about Ha Minhyuk and the way he curled his hands on Donghyuck’s nape so lovingly and treated him like trash a moment later. Jeno would worry, in his way too kind, way too involved, way too overbearing Jeno way. Jaemin would actually punch the guy and Ha Minhyuk is not a senior Donghyuck can afford to antagonize, since he leads the study group of Donghyuck’s advisor.

“Are you okay, Hyuckie?” Jeno asks, at some point, his hands too warm on Donghyuck’s cheek. He turns his head away from it. “It’s not like you to drink yourself silly like this… And you seemed off yesterday night. You know you can tell us if something is bothering you, right? Mark messaged me and…”

“Mark knows nothing,” he says, slowly, dragging every syllable, and Jeno and Jaemin still look at him like they can’t understand what he’s saying.

One of them sighs, Donghyuck doesn’t know who. He feels like he’s breathing underwater, air too thick in his throat and sticking to his lungs. Every sound seems to come from a great distance, muffled and distorted by a strange echo. He tries to loosen the collar of his shirt and ends up undoing three buttons at once. He’s undoing the fourth when a cool hands stops him.

“How much did he have to drink?”

Oh, Mark. Mark’s voice is cool. He smells cool. The ice in his fingers manage to disperse the haze in Donghyuck’s mind for a moment. They’re talking about him. Mark asked if they know what’s bothering him, says he’s been a little under the blue these days. Donghyuck doesn’t know if he feels more endeared that someone noticed or worried about explanations.

“Do you think he’s seeing someone behind our backs?” Jeno is asking, somewhere over his head. His eyes widen. “Do you think someone broke his heart and we didn’t even realize? What kind of friends are we?”

“If someone broke Hyuckie’s heart I’ll break their legs,” is saying Jaemin, uncharacteristically serious, and they’re so predictable Donghyuck feels laughter bubble hysterically in his throat.

“You know I’m still here, right? Assholes. Don’t talk like I can’t hear you.”

Everyone ignores him, so he’s not sure he said that or just thought about saying it, but Mark’s fingers card in his hair, a barely there touch, and soft, like he’s petting a puppy.

“What about your coven meeting?” Donghyuck asks, softly. It comes out a little muffled, mostly because he’s trying to speak against the sleeve of his shirt. Mark pulls his face up.

“Renjun felt sick so we bailed after a while. I think one of the boys from the catering service had done a line of coke or two before coming, Junnie got nauseous when he realized and Taeyong got all prissy and called the staff to argue. I think they’re still at it.”

“Sounds exciting,” he mumbles, while Mark pushes his fringe out of his eyes like he did yesterday night.

“Do you mind if I take him home?”

Jaemin and Jeno, the traitors, say yes, and Mark pulls him up to his feet.

“Come on,” he says. “Youngho will give us a ride.”

“Can Youngho even drive? He always crashes the car in videogames.”

“He’s two hundred and forty. He had a lot of time to practice in real life. Don’t worry, he won’t kill us,” Mark says, not looking any convinced though. “You can just puke in his car if it gets bad.”

Donghyuck scoffs, but Mark is already waving towards Jeno and Jaemin. “Get home safely, kids,” he says.

“Get home safely, kids!” Donghyuck slurs, just to mock him. He tries to wave and fails and Jaemin pats his shoulder so hard it hurts.

“See you later, Lee Dong-yah, and you better be prepared because you have some serious explanation to do next time.”

“They’re so annoying,” murmurs Donghyuck as they get in the car. “I love them.”

“They love you too. And they’re worried. You should tell them. Or you could tell me.”

Or he could not tell anyone. He leans his head on Mark’s shoulder, wraps himself against Mark’s side. He’s cool where everything else is hot and Donghyuck is too tired even to answer Youngho’s teasing remarks.

Once home, they crash on the couch in a heap of limbs. Mark browses three different infomercials until he finally settles on Show Me The Money reruns, and surprises Donghyuck by rapping under his voice along with the contestants.

“You should drink something,” he says, at Donghyuck’s lack of reaction, but Donghyuck stubbornly shakes his head. He doesn’t want to move now that he feels a little better. He’s already managed not to throw up in the car and thankfully the nausea has subsided, just a little. He just feels fuzzy and sleepy. And needy for affection. And, for once, Mark isn’t rigid and stiff like a piece of ice. He lets Donghyuck fold against his side, his head on Mark’s shoulder, his legs thrown over Mark’s thighs. Mark tucks his chin on the top of Donghyuck’s head and manhandles him on his lap.

“You’re awfully sticky today,” he murmurs, against Donghyuck’s tuft of hair.

“And you’re awfully pliant today,” Donghyuck says, with his eyes closed, nosing against Mark’s neck and inhaling. Normally, he would be too shy to do that. Donghyuck is touchy, but not that touchy, and Mark has always been very clear about boundaries and personal space, only letting Donghyuck break the rules to a certain extent. Today, though, Mark doesn’t push him away. He wraps his hands around Donghyuck’s shoulders and bring him even closer.

“It’s the blood,” he says. “It’s different when you drink it from the source. From someone, I mean. It makes everything softer.”

It’s like he’s a bit drunk too and Donghyuck takes advantage of the fragile moment to close his eyes against Mark’s throat and enjoy the comfort of his presence. He only wakes up when the sun is high in the sky and Mark has retreated towards the darkness of his room. (Not before he put a blanket on Donghyuck, of course.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to reply all the comments on chapter 1 before posting chapter 2, but I kinda decided to post chapter 2 on a whim at 5am so I can't a. guarantee there won't be a lot of mistakes and b. reply all the comments, but I've read them all and I love you all and I'll reply tomorrow, thank you so much ;;;;

☼

“So, you and your roommate,” begins Jaemin on Monday morning, when Donghyuck slides into the seat next to his own, carefully lays his precious more-caramel-than-coffee on the table and proceeds to lay his head on top of his notebook. “You and your cute roommate. Your cute roommate who is also a vampire. Your cute roommate and you.”

“It’s too early for this,” Donghyuck whines.

“You seemed awfully close Saturday night,” Jaemin continues, before he steals one sip of Donghyuck’s drink and grimaces at the overwhelming sweetness. “We were just talking about how you would’ve probably needed help to get home and bam! He appeared! Out of nowhere!”

Donghyuck briefly considers whether he should tell Jaemin Mark was only acting like that because he would have to take care of Donghyuck anyway, but he decides against it. He’s already receiving more teasing he deserves for such a small ordeal.

“You mean you didn’t call him? I thought Jeno called him.”

“He said he didn’t.”

“Then he was probably in the area.”

“Maybe he likes you,” sing-songs Jaemin, and Donghyuck raises his head to drink his coffee and considers the possibility, for a moment. Mark is nice, sure, but he’s nice to everyone. If he hadn’t been turned into a vampire, he would’ve probably become something heroic like a firefighter or a lawyer who only helps poor people or a heart surgeon. Donghyuck is almost sure Mark is the kind of guy who goes to club only to keep an eye on his friends and make sure no one bothers them.

“I think he’s just nice with everyone, extra nice with me because I’m his roommate and I’m lovable.”

“He’s not that nice with me and Jeno.”

Donghyuck scrunches his nose. “Well, neither of you is his roommate, or lovable.”

Jaemin hits Donghyuck, lightly, on the shoulder, and Donghyuck laughs into his sleeve and tries to knee him into the ribs, failing miserably because he’s giggling too much. The feeling of familiarity is quickly shattered when the TA enters the room and his eyes immediately find Donghyuck.

Ha Minhyuk looks… not too bad, Donghyuck must admit. He’s tall and he’s got nice cheekbones and his smile is not exceptionally handsome but most of the female students in the study group (and Donghyuck) squeal inwardly anyway. And he’s smart and hardworking, wow. He’s also a bit of an asshole. Or maybe he’s just scared. Donghyuck doesn’t know that feeling. Since he was young, he’s always known what he wanted. Maybe he’s being a bit unfair, because who is Lee Donghyuck to judge other people’s fears? Except Ha Minhyuk kissed him first and then left him there and Donghyuck doesn’t even like him. Donghyuck deserves better than him anyway and he has every right to feel angry.

“I brought your tests back,” Minhyuk says, laying some papers on the table. “Hyuckie did extremely well.”

Donghyuck stares at his polite smile and smiles back as politely. “It’s all thanks to your help, _sunbaenim_ ,” he says, keeping his voice neutral.

“I told you to call me _hyung_ ,” Ha Minhyuk replies, just as neutral, and Donghyuck has to grab his knees and hold on not to flinch, as if burned. He looks at his lap, barely listens to Jaemin chatting with the TA and doesn’t think about the last time he called him _hyung_ , in the back of that club, with Minhyuk’s hands curled behind his neck.

“Are you coming for drinks tomorrow night after the group meeting? Professor Park won’t be able to make it, but I’ve asked the other students and most of them will be there. You’re invited too, Na.”

“Of course we will,” says Jaemin, at the same time Donghyuck says, “Sorry, maybe next time.”

There’s a moment of awkward silence in which Donghyuck focuses on Jaemin’s confused face because he feels sick when he looks at Minhyuk.

“I’ve already made plans with my roommate,” he lies, hoping Mark will cover for him in the not-so-remote eventuality Jaemin calls to confirm. Donghyuck hopes he doesn’t because at this point he’ll either be forced to tell Jaemin what happened with Minhyuk or he’ll have to tell Mark. Or both. And if they both know Jeno will know too and he’ll probably fret about it Donghyuck already feels ashamed enough on his own, there’s no need to involve all his friends. “But you can go without me if you want.”

“Ah, right,” Jaemin smile falters for a moment but he recovers immediately and he beams at Minhyuk. “I’ll let you know then.”

☾

Donghyuck bolts as soon as the class ends, claiming an impending deadline and leaving the room before Jaemin can even lay his pen on the table. He buys a triangle kimbap in one of the campus convenience stores and eats in on the way to the most remote reading room of the campus, where he wastes his day away working on a presentation for his midterm grade. Jaemin doesn’t say anything, which in Na-Language means he’s not going to ask Donghyuck what happened, but that he’ll find out some other way. Jeno only calls to remind him to eat his dinner. Donghyuck flinches every time someone walks towards his table, only to let out a breath of relief when it’s not Ha Minhyuk coming to ask him to talk about what happened, or worse, call him a faggot again. He doesn’t really work on the presentation, in the end.

It’s already dark when he comes home, the entire apartment plunged into darkness. He tiptoes around the entrance, hoping Mark is still mercifully asleep and he won’t have to be questioned. It’s a foolish hope, he realizes, when halfway towards his room the lights flicker on and the door to Mark’s room open, his face peeking at Donghyuck from the darkness.

“You’re back,” he says.

“Congratulations on your observational skills.”

He tries to dribble, but Mark is a vampire, a lousy one, maybe, but still a vampire, and when Donghyuck slams against his shoulder it’s like slamming against concrete. 

“Can you be more careful? I’m not made of titanium…” he complains, massaging his hurt shoulder.

Mark walks towards him with an unusual resolute expression on his usually lost face, and Donghyuck steps back to evade him, with no avail.

“No, you’re made of stubbornness and lies, Hyuck. Jaemin said we have plans for tomorrow night. Funny, because we don’t have plans. Explain.”

Donghyuck sighs, realizing only then that Mark has successfully managed to back him against the couch. The back of his knees hits the cushion and he falls sit. He pouts. Mark is, sadly, completely unaffected. 

“You either talk about this with me or you’ll have to talk about this with Jaemin. I’m not covering for you again unless you give me the truth,” he says, crossing his arms and looking like the stupid older brother Donghyuck never needed. (Except he’s too cute, he would be wasted as a brother.) 

“So?”

“Okay,” Donghyuck says, reluctantly. “Okay. I was trying to avoid someone.”

“Who?”

Donghyuck hesitates, because not even Jeno knows about what happened with Minhyuk and Jeno and Donghyuck go back to middle school, so keeping something from him is huge. 

“I have answered one question. Can I go now?”

He tries to get up but Mark pushes him down again, keeps him pinned against the couch with a hand on his shoulder in a way that is both totally unfair and hot at the same time.

“You can try,” he says, and he keeps his voice serious, but there’s a sparkle of amusement in his eyes, like he’s enjoying this. Donghyuck pretends to push against his hand, but it doesn’t even budge. He won’t deny it, it’s hot.

“You’re horribly unfair,” he pouts, but Mark shakes his head and when he talks his voice is laced with fondness. 

“I’m just worried for you, Hyuckie.”

He smiles one of his shaky, awkward smiles, and Donghyuck’s heart does something dangerous and painful. Mark might only have been part of Donghyuck's life for the last six months, but he makes things so easy and difficult at the same time. He helps Donghyuck with English, always holds his hair up while he throws up, never judges Donghyuck for the way he tramps around the house in shorts too short to be legal and doesn’t complain when Donghyuck clings to his back every time he needs to ask for a favor. He even tries to cook, sometimes, with pitiful, disastrous results, but he tries. Mark tries so hard it’s difficult not to fall for him even more. And he deserves the truth, even if Donghyuck would rather cut his fingers than explaining _this_ thing to his crush.

He takes a deep breath.

“If I tell you, it stays between us. You don't tell the others, you promise?”

Mark frowns but ends up nodding along, too curious to refuse. He sits down next to Donghyuck, close enough that their thighs are barely touching, and keeps his palm on Donghyuck’s knee, drumming on it with nervous fingers.

“Okay, there’s this teacher assistant who works with my advisor. He's… He was... We might have had a thing going on.”

“What kind of thing?” Mark’s voice is icy, sharper than Donghyuck has ever heard it before. He recoils and considers just running to his room and hiding there until dawn, because this is exactly what he wanted to avoid. It doesn’t matter how many times he repeats himself that this… this crush for Mark doesn’t mean anything, at the end of the day he’s still talking about his disastrous love life with the only person he’d like to have a love life with.

“Well, I thought he was interested in me. He seemed interested, in the beginning. He might still be, but it doesn’t really matter at this point.”

“Were _you_ interested though?”

Donghyuck hesitates. “I liked that he seemed interested in me, but I didn’t exactly like him. I just… It was nice, _he_ was nice. I wasn’t head over heels, but I liked talking to him.”

His voice drawls over and he doesn’t dare watch Mark, too afraid of what he could read in his eyes. He doesn’t want Mark to think he’s shallow, or something. It’s just, at this point, Donghyuck probably just wants someone to love him.

Mark just squeezes his knee – Donghyuck almost jumps up because he’s ticklish there – and nods. 

“So you didn’t like him.” Funny enough, he sounds calmer than before now, almost relieved. “I guess something must have happened, if you now have to invent inexistent plans with me just to avoid him, am I right?”

Donghyuck looks down.

“He kissed me last Friday.” Mark’s frown deepens dangerously again, turning into a full force scowl. “I mean, we kissed,” he adds, quickly. “But he was kinda drunk - be both were - and after that he pushed me away and said...” He winces, not wanting to say it out loud. “Well, he suddenly realized he wasn’t gay enough for kisses and he freaked out.”

“Wait, was he leading you on? What an asshole!”

“There’s no need to get angry, _hyung_. He was an asshole, okay, but I’m kinda used to it.”

“You shouldn’t be used to it, what the fuck…”

Donghyuck shrugs. It’s pathetic and a little unbecoming but that’s how it is. End of the story. He feels the soft pressure of Mark’s fingers on his leg, petting him like he always does whenever he wants to bring some kind of comfort to Donghyuck but doesn’t know how. It calms them both.

“If I weren’t a vampire, I’d probably punch him for you,” Mark says slowly, and it's the lamest thing to say but somehow it makes Donghyuck smile.

“If you weren’t a vampire I doubt you’d be able to deal any damage anyway, _hyung_ ,” he says. Mark’s touch on his hair falters. He likes being called _hyung_ , but Donghyuck doesn’t do it often. It’s his most effective weapon against him, so he can’t waste it. He sighs, instead, leaning against Mark until his face is splayed against Mark’s shoulder. “It just… hurts, you know? On a rational level I know he probably likes me, even though he can’t even admit it out loud, but… It still hurts. He made me feel…” Small and stupid and wrong. He sighs, hiding his face in his hands. Mark silently puts an arm around his shoulders.

“I didn’t even like him that much, but I at least wanted to tell him he’s an asshole and that I can do so much better than him. And I can’t even do that.”

“Why?” 

“He’s a senior. He’s the leader of my study group. He works with my advisor. I can’t do it.”

“So what will you do? You can’t avoid him forever, especially since he’ll be in a couple of your classes.”

He sounds genuinely concerned about that, in a way that makes something swell in Donghyuck’s chest.

“Well, this morning he was trying to act like nothing had happened.” In retrospect, he doesn’t know what would make him feel worse. Minhyuk acting like their kiss never happened or Minhyuk trying to talk about it and maybe accusing Donghyuck of trying to seduce him? Ok, definitely the latter. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“You better be… You should also stop drinking so much,” Mark says, and his eyes are still angry but he manages to keep the edge out of his voice, as if afraid it’d hurt Donghyuck.

Donghyuck scoffs. As it’s easy to just stop drinking at a social meeting where the only thing you’re required to do is drink. “I can’t exactly refuse when a senior or a professor pours me a drink, you know?”

Mark clicks his tongue. “Ah, social conventions and seniority. Sometimes I forgot they exist for human too. It works in a similar way for vampires, but we’re lucky because Taeyong cares very little about hierarchy in the coven and wouldn’t force anyone to drink blood.”

“Lucky you,” Donghyuck sing-songs, stretching like a cat. “I want to have a cool _sunbae_ like Taeyong-hyung, and yet I’m stuck with closeted asshole Ha Minhyuk.”

He sighs and reluctantly leaves the comfort of Mark’s touch, rolling on his heels to get up. “I’m hungry, what about you?”

“I’m always hungry,” says Mark, absent-mindedly. He’s still staring at the spot on the couch where Donghyuck was sitting, even if Donghyuck is already scampering towards the kitchen and away from this conversation.

“You should eat more then. Or drink, I don’t know. Want me to fix you some blood?”

He doesn’t realize exactly what he’s saying until Mark perks up, blinks and, in the most panicked tone, murmurs, “What?”

It hangs between them, suspended in beautiful, perfect silence, for a moment, before Donghyuck splutters, blushes and throws a dishtowel at him. 

“I meant bringing you a bag, I really did!”

Mark splutters too, looks mortified and takes a dishtowel in his face. 

“I’m sorry. Yes, of course you can… bring me a bag… Sorry, my brain just shut down for a second.”

Donghyuck makes dinner in awkward silence and eats it in front of Running Man, and the sound of Mark slurping his blood from a baby blue straw haunts him until he goes to sleep.

☾

“Where do you vampires get blood?”

“Who the hell is this?”

The voice on the phone is scratchy, tired. It’s almost dawn and Donghyuck, who usually sleeps in until midday unless he has classes, woke up just before the sun could rise, haunted by dreams of Mark’s tiny, pointy teeth and this single question.

“It’s Donghyuck,” he says, a little petulant and impatient. “Mark’s roommate,” he adds, even though there’s a little chance Seo Youngho doesn’t remember about him, since they see each other almost weekly - not counting how Donghyuck almost threw up in his car just two days ago.

“Ah, sure. I gave you my number for emergencies, not for bothering me at the crack of dawn to ask me if- wait, why the sudden question?”

“I was just curious! Can’t I be curious? I mean-”

“Did Mark finish his blood stash?” Youngho’s voice grows increasingly stressed with every word. “Did he try to bite you?”

“What? No! He would never do that!” It comes out as a squeal and Donghyuck hopes - prays - Mark is already sleeping. He doesn’t want Mark to know Donghyuck is thinking about Mark biting him. Or Mark biting anyone. Or anyone biting Donghyuck. Or…

“You’re right, he would never, ‘kay, I’m good, you had me scared there for a moment. Oh, but I have no time for this, the sun is rising. To answer your question, we either get blood for free from the blood banks or we hire people willing to sell their blood from the source.”

Donghyuck feels his face heating at the thought of Mark biting someone. “Like, prostitutes?”

“Like blood donors, my young padawan, stop being this judgmental. But they’re really expensive, baby vampires like Mark of little Huang can’t afford that kind of service on their own. Taeyong and I do that often, for example. Yuta too sometimes, but he’s so stingy even if he’s loaded. The coven covers for the expenses if one of the members needs a quick fix or to pay for escorts during coven meetings. But most of the time we just get the blood for free from a blood bank, duh. It’s frozen, bio, vegan if you like that kind of thing-”

“How can blood be vegan? It’s blood, not aloe vera!”

“It’s blood donated by vegan people,” curtly explains Youngho, “and it’s lighter and healthier, more expensive and absolutely tasteless. I hate it, but Yuta is into that kind of thing. It seems to be trendy nowadays in the Undead community. Now, will you tell them what happened before the sun burns my beautiful face?” 

“Wow, that was informational. So, Mark. He. He didn’t try to bite me. But there was a misunderstanding and he thought I was asking him and things were kinda awkward afterwards.”

“Were you really asking though?”

Donghyuck shakes his head, even though Youngho can’t see him. “No! Of course I wasn’t!” he says.

“Why not? I thought you liked him.”

Donghyuck splutters, the words coming automatically to his lips. “I don’t like Mark.”

On the other side of the phone, Seo Youngho laughs like Donghyuck really is the most hilarious. “For someone who doesn’t like Mark, you kinda cling him a lot. Just because he’s blind to the obvious, it doesn’t mean we all are.”

“Shut up and let me live in my denial,” he whines.

“Denial is out of fashion, Lee Donghyuck. We have three minutes until sunrise so let’s go back to you accidentally offering your neck to my favorite baby brother. Do you want to? It’s not that deep, you know. Unless you want it to be.”

“Should I? I mean, would he want me to?” He never thought about it before, but the thought kind of makes his leg feels like they’re made of jelly.

“Well, I don’t know a single vampire who would refuse blood from the source. It tastes a lot better, but Mark is… the vampire definition of a prude. He’s really picky about this kind of things.”

“Oh,” Donghyuck says, in a soft exhale of breath. He doesn’t know if he feels relieved or disappointed. He opens his mouth to thank Youngho for the clarification, but the vampire anticipates him.

“But how would you feel about it? Freaked out? Curious? Intrigued but a little scared? Oh, don’t tell me you have a blood kink, Lee Donghyuck…”

“I…”

Donghyuck feels himself blush, unable to reply. He listens to the static silence coming from the other side of the line and Donghyuck thinks Youngho has already cut the call, but the vampire surprises Donghyuck with a soft hum. When he talks, his voice is really rough and thick with sleep.

“You know, Mark kinda has a soft spot for you, so, in the end, who knows what he’d think about it… You should try asking him the next time. Maybe he’ll surprise you…”

“What?”

Only the rhythmic beep beep of the disconnected call answers Donghyuck’s panicked question.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -donghyuck stop tempting mark challenge: failed  
> -healthy communication challenge: failed  
> -cla focus on the original plot instead of derailing to write markhyuck sharing a bed: failed  
> in short words this chapter is the most shameless self-bday-gift ever c:

☼

Jaemin corners Donghyuck before the beginning of sixth period.

“So, you and Mark,” he says, looking like the cat who got the mice. Donghyuck drops one of the books he’s carrying, trips on it and almost curses in front of one of Professor Do in the span of two seconds.

“Me and Mark what?” he wants to ask, but only a pitiful chirp escapes him.

“Your date,” continues Jeno “How long did you think you could hide this from me? We’ve been friends more than half of our lives.”

“What?”

“I’m hurt, Lee Donghyuck.”

“WHAT?”

Jaemin pouts. Behind him, Jeno crosses his arms. They look like the freshman version of Donghyuck’s parents, pretending to be disappointed by secretly kinda proud. Donghyuck feels a little lost.

“I am not,” he says, slowly, as if that could make them understand somehow, “going on a date with Mark.”

“Ahah,” says Jaemin in triumph, “that’s not what Mark said.”

He slaps Donghyuck with his phone. In the kakaotalk conversation on the screen, with a background of pink Baby Peach and his baby teeth, Jaemin asked Mark if he really had something to do with Donghyuck on Tuesday night and Mark… And Mark…

Donghyuck pales, stealing the phone from Jaemin’s hands to read Mark’s reply a couple more times, to make sure he really read what he thought he read.

_yes we’re going on a date_

A date.

Date.

Donghyuck’s first reaction is the instinctual, ancestral need to find Mark and kill him. Again. For good, this time, to make sure he cannot come back and embarrass Donghyuck like this ever again. Donghyuck’s second reaction is the most explosive blush he’s ever experienced, like a tsunami of blood that starting from his face washes away until the tip of his toes. Donghyuck’s third and final reaction is the most pathetic, weak ass complaint he’s ever issued.

“We’re not,” he says - stutters, really, and it doesn’t help his cause at all. “It’s not a date. We just need to buy stuff for the house.”

“That’s not what he said, though,” Jeno adds, with a smile. Donghyuck can only look at him in disdain. Today all his friends decided to betray him, Mark on top of them all.

“Also, you can’t go shopping in the middle of the night, if you need to feed us excuses at least make them believable,” Jaemin finishes for him. “But I see how it is. Enjoy your quality time with your new boyfriend, just don’t forget about your dear friends who supported you through all the denial phase.”

Donghyuck’s screech of despair is completely justified. 

The outrage keeps ringing in his head on his way home, as he listens to Momoland during the crowded subway ride.

A date. He inwardly scoffs. 

It’s not that he doesn’t like the idea – the complete opposite, to be honest – but it’s difficult to be excited when he knows Mark doesn’t really mean it. And it’s a little cruel, all things considered, that Mark would suggest something like that, completely undermining Donghyuck’s efforts to keep his feelings in check. And now Jaemin _and_ Jeno won’t stop making lewd suggestions, or winking, or assuming things are going to happen and someone is officially getting his heart broken by The Nicest Guy Ever, and that someone is Donghyuck.

The sky is darkening when he arrives home. He kicks his shoes away and loses the bag in front of the door and he only stops to hang his coat before he’s banging on Mark’s door.

“Hey, hey can I enter? We need to talk!”

A muffled moan comes from inside, but no clear permission. Donghyuck takes a look outside. The sun has already set behind the skyscrapers and only the faintest tendrils of pale blue still lights up the sky at East. It should be safe enough. He opens the door to quickly gets inside and he’s greeted by darkness and the power light of Mark’s laptop blinking on and off to signal the device is 100% loaded.

He hears the rustling of the covers as Mark rolls in his bed, probably still half-asleep. How dares he sleep so peacefully after saying he and Donghyuck are going on a date, Donghyuck doesn’t know and cannot accept.

“Hey, ramyun head,” he says, stepping closer. “What did you tell Jaemin? I thought you were going to cover for me, not dump me into even deeper shit!”

“Hyuck...” Mark moans, muffled, somewhere between the pillow and the comforter. “It’s too early! Go away!”

“Ah, you know what else should go away? That message you sent Jaemin, that’s what! You should take responsibility for what you’ve done, you…”

It happens too fast for Donghyuck to react. He just feels the cold clamp of fingers on his wrist, Mark tugging at him easily, like he’s some kind of ragdoll. He slams against the mattress - it doesn’t hurt but it winds the breath away from his lungs in a soft _oomph_ \- and then Mark’s arms close around him, bracketing his chest while their owner lets out a sleepy, raspy sigh.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re so loud,” Mark murmurs. “And warm.”

He nuzzles against Donghyuck, holds him tighter. And, rationally, it’s not even Mark’s fault. He warned Donghyuck twenty-thousand times not to enter his room while he’s still in the middle of waking up, groggy and dizzy and so, _so_ hungry, so Donghyuck can’t really complain now.

Mark’s skin is really cold, he notices. Even under the heavy blankets, it’s like hugging a block of ice. Maybe that’s why he chases Donghyuck’s warmth with his hands and noses at his cheek, like hypnotized, following the scent of blood.

“Hey,” Donghyuck whispers, half-terrified, half-flustered, trying to keep his heartbeat under control to stop luring Mark in and failing so bad. He can see the way Mark’s gaze sharpens, just for a moment, when his throat moves to speak. “If you bite me without my permission, I’ll open the shutters and burn you alive.”

The world shakes and it takes a moment for Donghyuck to realize Mark Lee – loser extraordinaire – is laughing at him.

“And how do you plan on escaping my hold, Hyuckie?”

Donghyuck blushes, more in rage than embarrassment, and tries to kick Mark’, but he can barely move with the way the older boy has wrapped himself all around him. Blushing is bad, thinks Donghyuck, when Mark looks at his face and licks his lips.

“Relax,” he says, and his nose nuzzles against the hollow between Donghyuck’s neck and his shoulder. His hands are starting to warm up against Donghyuck’s wrists, stealing his body heat. “I don’t bite unless someone asks.”

“I bet no one ever asked,” Donghyuck shoots back, and it comes out nasty and panicked and nosy at the same time. He’d ask. He’s _this_ close to just asking.

“You’d lose. I just want to…” Mark breathes Donghyuck’s scent, melts against his warmth. “You’re so warm. Let’s sleep a little more.”

“Let’s get up and get you something to drink instead, so you stop sniffing me like I’m some kind of vampire treat-” - “The most delicious treat,” Mark murmurs, and shivers when Donghyuck shivers - “-and then you can properly wake up and nag at me for the rest of our date.”

“Shut up, Donghyuck, this is our date,” he says, and this time he mouths at Donghyuck’s jugular and Donghyuck can’t take it anymore. He blindly grabs the first thing he finds under his fingers - unfortunately, Mark’s phone - and hits him in the head with it.

See? End of the uncomfortable situation.

☾

“I can’t believe you broke my phone!”

“Your head broke your phone! Harder than a rock!”

“I can’t believe you would hit me in the head with my own phone after… ambushing me in my own bed!”

“You dragged me in the bed!”

“And you… you shouldn’t have been in the room!”

“Well, you shouldn’t have told Jaemin we’re going on a date!”

“Then you should’ve told Jaemin the truth by yourself!”

Donghyuck opens his mouth to complain but there’s nothing he can say to deprive Mark of his right to have the last word this time, so he simply stomps his feet down and glares and Mark stomps his feet down and sucks loudly from his third bottle of blood and they don’t look at each other until Mark eventually leaves.

Donghyuck discreetly follows him, to see if he’s angry and maybe - maybe - apologize, because Mark was right and it was his fault. Mark told him countless times to stay out of his room. Donghyuck just… didn’t think. It’s easy to forget Mark is a vampire. It’s easy to forget he’s dangerous.

“Can we talk?” he says. Instead of an answer, he receives a handful of sheets.

“What are you doing?” he asks, his mouth full of cotton. It smells like snow, cold and white.

“Changing the sheets. There’s no way I can sleep in there bedding after you…” He makes a vague gesture and lets his words die and Donghyuck scrunches his nose.

“Do I smell that bad?” he asks, with a frown.

“You smell good,” Mark says, his eyes a little too wide, as if unsure whether it’s a wrong answer or the only right one. “Just, you smell like blood and it would be really distracting. For me. To sleep in there.”

He nods to himself and Donghyuck finds himself nodding too, his mouth slightly open.

“Oh. I mean, I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would affect you this much.”

Mark makes a strange face between constipated and really confused and opens the door so Donghyuck can step backs slowly, trying to find the laundry basket with his foot. When he trips on it, Mark catches him by the collar of his hoodie pulls him back up again, takes the sheets from his hands - his nose scrunching up when they come too close to his nose - and dumps them inside the basket. He lifts it like it doesn’t really weigh anything.

“Do you need to wash anything?” he asks, while Donghyuck collects the laundry keycard.

“I have some stuff in my room, but I wouldn’t want my human smell to contaminate your bedding again so maybe I’ll wait for next round.”

Mark scoffs. “Get your stuff. Laundry detergent too!”

“Aye sir!”

“And get me another bottle of blood! And a straw!”

Mark refuses to take the elevator with him, so they walk the six stores of stairs until the basement, chuck everything in the washing machine and swipe their shiny laundry card, while Mark nervously teeths at the straw of his already fourth bottle of the night.

“Aren’t you drinking a little too much blood today?” Donghyuck asks, hoisting himself up on the last laundry machine of the row, the broken one.

Mark hums and purposefully sucks even harder, finishing all the blood in a slurp.

“Frozen blood doesn’t really do much in these cases. It’s like eating cold leftovers for the rest of your life while your dumb roommate jumps inside your bed covered in hot pizza.”

Donghyuck laughs harder than he should have. Mark frowns.

“It’s not a compliment, I’m saying you’re a tease.”

“You said I’m like hot pizza, the greatest compliment in my opinion.”

Well, that’s not exactly what Mark said, but Donghyuck is willing to twist reality a little if it means believing Mark thinks he’s hot like pizza. Mark looks ready to contradict him, but he gives up in the end.

“Yuta-hyung is right. You talk too much.”

“My greatest quality,” Donghyuck says, with a shrug.

For a moment, they watch laundry and water and soap swirl inside the porthole of the washing machine, like a small universe seen from the window of a spaceship. They could go back to the apartment, where it’s warmer and they’ll find food for Donghyuck and more blood for Mark’s newfound insatiable thirst, but they set a quick wash and they’d need to go down again in thirty minute to dump everything inside the dryer again, so Donghyuck crosses his legs and leans against the wall, listening to the water sloshing inside the washing machine.

Mark sits on the table hosting the ironing board and looks at him. “While we’re on the subject, did you talk to the guy? The TA?” he asks suddenly.

Donghyuck grimaces, feeling cold all of a sudden. “Nope. He was in my class today, but I sat at the back and hid behind Jaemin when he walked our way. I think he wants to talk to me, but I don’t want to talk to him.”

“You should tell him to fuck off,” Mark mutters, his nose scrunched. 

He’s right, Donghyuck should. He can’t keep avoiding his teacher assistant, someone is going to notice, but it’s not that easy either.

They unload the washing machine and load everything on the dryer together. Later, Donghyuck will just bat his lashes at Mark and call him _hyung_ in the most saccharine tone he can muster to convince him to go down and retrieve their dry stuff by himself while Donghyuck lies face down on the couch. For now, they slowly walk back home and Donghyuck fixes himself a quick dinner while Mark attacks his fifth bottle.

“What happens if you finish all the blood in our fridge and you’re still thirsty?” Donghyuck asks, as they settle in front of the coffee table with their laptops. Mark looks at him, then at the bottle, then at him again. Then away from him. He scratches his neck. If he had more blood in his veins he would probably blush, but he just looks really flustered and still pale.

“Well, I don’t really know? I guess I’d call Taeyong and he’d fix me a date with someone? Blood cravings can usually be solved only with fresh blood.”

Donghyuck lets out a soft _oh_ , and looks down. Sometimes he wonders what it would feel like, to be bitten by a vampire. Not Mark, okay, just a vampire. Ok, that’s a lie, he personally wouldn’t mind being bitten by Mark, specifically.

Jaemin actually volunteered once, during Vampire Awareness Day, but no one was able to pry any information out of him after he came home on wobbly legs, except that his vampire had been a real gentleman about it and he wouldn’t mind doing it again. Donghyuck had always thought it would be painful, but Jaemin didn’t seem too uncomfortable about it. Youngho’s voice echoes in Donghyuck’s head, bumping against his skull every time he moves.

The idea is foreign and it honestly sounds like a mess - like, with blood trickling down and staining everything - but somehow the thought of Mark biting him makes his knees go weak and his head feels light, and when his head feels too light he opens his mouth and the words flow out without his permission.

“You know you could always ask me, right? I’d say yes,” he says, and Mark chokes on air - which, in retrospect, is really funny, since vampires don’t even need to breathe. 

He chokes on air and splutters and he glares at Donghyuck. “No. Are you crazy? That’s just… No. That’s not an option. Stop saying stuff like that, Hyuck!”

“Why? Am I not good? You said I’m like hot pizza! And Youngho said it’s not a big deal, so…”

“You shouldn’t listen to Youngho,” Mark says, cutting Donghyuck off. He looks… angry, but also nervous. More nervous than angry. Maybe a little panicked. “It is a big deal. It is to me. Please, don’t ask again, Donghyuck.”

He uses Donghyuck’s full name, and every complaint dies on the tip of Donghyuck’s tongue. He goes back to his laptop, pouting. In the end, does it really matter if Mark doesn’t want to suck his blood? It’s not like Donghyuck really wanted to offer anyway. Everything is dumb.

☾

Donghyuck goes to bed early, but struggles to fall asleep and only manages to catch a quick hour of fitful sleep after he hears the bang of Mark’s door shutting closed, plus the accompanying click of the key locking the door from the inside. This hurts, because Mark used to lock his door before he went to sleep in the beginning, but he stopped doing that a few weeks into their friendship because he trusted Donghyuck to respect his privacy. (Which Donghyuck didn’t do yesterday, so it’s his fault, but it still hurts.)

The phone rings a couple of times before Youngho’s sleepy voice greets Donghyuck.

“The sun is rising, little fucker, what do you want?”

“Mark doesn’t want my blood,” he says, whining.

“What?”

“Mark doesn’t want my blood,” he repeats. “I offered and he refused and now he locked himself in his room and I’m afraid I stepped on some unknown boundary and now he’ll hate me forever and…”

“He didn’t want your blood?” asks Youngho, sounding extremely dumbfounded but also intrigued at the same time. “Like, he actually refused?”

Donghyuck pouts. He feels stupid. He just wanted to do something nice, but there was no need for Mark to treat him like that, especially right after he scolded him for being too delicious. Mark is super stupid and Donghyuck doesn’t even know why he’s feeling offended.

“Did he hurt your feelings? Oh, Hyuckie, poor baby… Don’t mind Mark, he’s an idiot. I told you, he’s really a prude about these things. But, if you’re curious, remember I’m always willing to bite a friend.”

“I’m not curious!” snaps Donghyuck. “I’m not doing it because I have a freaking thing for bloodletting…” He does it because he has a freaking thing for Mark, that’s the reason. He bites his bottom lip. “I just wanted to do something for him. Mark is my friend and he said it was my fault if he was feeling thirsty! Can’t I just want to be a good friend for him?”

He tries to ignore the little voice telling him he definitely had ulterior motives when he asked. Little, traitorous, honest voice. Shut up.

“An, but this is the point. Maybe he doesn’t just want to be your friend. Maybe he wants to-”

Donghyuck stops listening when someone - probably Mark since they live alone - knocks at his door. He gets up, but as soon as he opens the door Mark gently but firmly pries the phone out of his fingers.

“Hey! I was still talking!” he says, trying to get his phone back, but Mark simply holds it higher with one hand and keeps Donghyuck away with the other hand.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop listening to Youngho? He’s only going to feed you lies,” he says, as he closes the call, and Donghyuck feels rage torch inside his chest.

“It’s not your business who I talk to!” he replies. 

“It is my business when you’re talking about me!”

“Well, you should stop eavesdropping then!”

“Says the one who snuck into my room!”

“Well, then you… you…” He bites his lip, desperately trying to summon a comeback of some sorts and finding none. Twice. He can’t believe Mark Lee rendered him speechless twice in the span of a couple of hours! He tries to punch Mark out of frustration, but it’s like punching a steel pillar. His hands hurts and he feels tears sting at the corner of his eyes.

“Please stop, before you hurt yourself. The sun will rise in a couple of minutes and I won’t be awake to patch you up.”

“I don’t need you patching me up! I just need…” He takes a big breath. Mark looks more constipated every second and that’s when Donghyuck realizes the sun really is rising as the sky clears at East, darkness fading away while the last night lights flicker, and the big oaf is still here, somehow more invested in this argument than in his survival. 

“We’ll talk about this tomorrow night, okay?” Donghyuck says in the end. “You need to sleep.”

And this time, when Donghyuck pushes him away, Mark leaves without a word.


	4. interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a real update, just a small Mark Lee ficlet set when he and Donghyuck became roommates. Next update will focus on the plot again, I promise <3
> 
> (also forgive me I'll reply all the comments before the next update, thank you so much for your support ;;;)

The world is different as a vampire. Brighter and warmer, but in a way that Mark is not allowed to enjoy. The sun hurts and that’s something he was expecting. Warmth doesn’t hurt physically, but Mark craves it with an intensity that reminds him of an ache. It’s like he’s constantly bleeding out, life slipping through his fingers like blood out of a wound, warmth leaving his body like a dam just broke.

It’s not pleasurable, it’s not funny. Taeyong warned him in the preliminary sessions before he was turned. _We’re dead. We’re always dead. We’re borrowing someone else’s life._

“Borrowing, not stealing. Never stealing,” Taeyong teaches him. “We can buy blood, we can receive blood like a gift, but the moment you steal you’re out of this coven. That’s not what we do.”

“It’s alright,” Mark says, and he means it. He doesn’t really want to drink from the source anyway. He figures he can spend the rest of eternity on the blood bags vampires can receive for free simply by filling a form and sending it to the Department of Undead Affairs.

No one tells him how it’s such an idealistic plan. No one bothers to explain him how naive he is. He figures it out on his own, the first time he goes out of the nest, two weeks after being turned, with Doyoung on one side and Youngho on the other, and his nose catches a whiff of blood three streets away. They have to call Taeyong in order to keep him restrained.

It just smelled so good.

The thing is, Mark hates losing control. And he hates not being good at things.

The other thing is. Blood smells like the only thing that matters.

It takes Mark six years, a couple of decades less than the average vampire, to learn how to control himself. He takes eight different examinations before he’s deemed ready to live with humans without posing a threat to their well-being.

Three years later, a little longer than the flapping of butterfly wings to an immortal vampire, Mark meets Lee Donghyuck.

☼

Donghyuck is... different.

Most of it is the result of him not realizing Mark is a vampire, but even that is an incredible feat in itself, because it’s not like Mark is hiding it. He keeps blood in the fridge and drinks it in front of Donghyuck, avoids daylight like a plague, doesn’t even reflect on mirrors… And yet Donghyuck fails to notice. 

And Donghyuck is... clingy. It’s not just a physical matter. It’s in the way he talks, each word wrapping around Mark’s chest like a fat drop of honey, sticky and warm. It’s in the way he pouts when Mark doesn’t answer to something he said, in the way he laughs at Mark and call him lame and in the way he falls asleep in front of Mark, mouth falling open with every breath and throat completely exposed, like a human should never be in front of a vampire. The collar of his shirt is rumpled and Mark can see his chest heaving up and down and he can feel the warmth radiating from him. He wants to lay down next to him and soak in it.

What he does is: sit Donghyuck down in the kitchen, tell him he’s a vampire - Donghyuck’s eyes widen as he connects the dots - and beg him to throw the garlic bread away.

What he doesn’t do is: tell Donghyuck to stop walking around half naked and rubbing himself all over Mark, tell him to keep his distance and to not come too close right after sunset and before Mark has drunk his breakfast blood bag, tell him to run away as fast as he can because Mark is a freak, a monster, a bloodthirsty animal.

He should do it. He’d normally do it, because Mark hates losing control and Donghyuck is a constant temptation and he should really put a stop to it before it gets too difficult to ignore. He doesn’t say anything.

In some ways, Donghyuck is right and Mark is an idiot, but it’s been so long since a human treated him like this. Comfortable, easy, without fear. Donghyuck laughs out loud and kisses Mark on the cheek to close arguments. Donghyuck is not afraid of him.

In the kitchen, looking strangely ethereal under the yellow light of their small lamp, Donghyuck nods to himself. “No garlic bread,” he says. “Is that blood in the fridge?”

“Does it bother you?”

“Not really. I just thought it was coffee and I had a half idea to steal it and bring it with me to classes. I’m glad I didn’t. It could’ve been disgusting.”

Mark scoffs. “I would’ve liked to be awake to see it happen.”

Donghyuck gets up. He starts the rice cooker. “At least now I know why you never wanted to try my fried rice. I was starting to think you hated me.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” Mark asks, glad that Donghyuck is currently halfway inside the fridge looking for his mom’s homemade _kimchi_ and Mark can’t see his face.

Donghyuck resurfaces, a plastic container held victoriously in his hand.

“Should I?” He asks, looking at Mark like he’s being stupid.

“You don’t really look scary,” he adds, sizing Mark up and down. “Besides, you’re the perfect height for cuddles, I’m not going to give up on that just because you like to nibble on people sometimes. As long as you don’t nibble on me.”

He flashes Mark a smile. It’s blinding. And warm. And full of life. Like a lot of things Mark should never be able to enjoy again. But Donghyuck is here, right in front of Mark. As long as he’s not afraid, he can be Mark’s personal little sun.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mild! angst! really mild! if you read the interlude you might understand mark's behavior in this chapter a little better. it's not his fault, he's just a soft overthinker ;;;;;  
> also, thank you all for the undying support and for all the comments ;; i usually try to answer every comment before i update, but since i made you all wait for this chapter i decided to post first and reply comments later tonight and tomorrow. but you're really the best, ilu all ♥

☼

“I fought with Mark.”

Jeno doesn’t reply, too busy devouring his lunch, but Jaemin’s head perks up from his coding notes.

“Elaborate please. What disrupted your disgusting domesticity?”

“He was acting really thirsty, you know…” He doesn’t miss the slightly smug look Jaemin and Jeno exchange, so he explains, “Not like that! Like! Blood! Bloodthirsty!”

“That’s what vampires usually do, Hyuck. They act bloodthirsty. Because they are.”

“Well, more than usual.”

“Yes, I’m sure he is,” Jeno snickers, spreading breadcrumbs everywhere. “He’s really thirsty.”

He only stops when Jaemin pinches him. “Please go on, what did you do?”

“I did what any good friend would’ve done? I offered him my blood! And he got angry! Like! Why!”

Jaemin sighs and crosses his hands in front of his face, then leans his chin on them like a bad imitation of Gendo Ikari in Evangelion. “Did you friendzone Mark Lee? And you’re asking us why he might be mad?”

“Did this happen before or after you snuck into his bed?” Jeno asks, sounding too gleeful for his own good.

“Okay first, I fell on his bed, second, it was an accident, third, I can’t believe Mark would rattle on me like that! To my best friends! There’s really no one I can trust in this sad, forsaken world?”

Jaemin sounds like he’s either going to say something incredibly deep, something incredibly stupid or something incredibly mean. Or all of the above at the same time, you can never know with Jaemin, when he stops, suddenly.

“Do you need something?”

Donghyuck turns and sees Ha Minhyuk towering over their table and fidgeting and looking nervous and awkward as fuck. Oh, right. There’s him too. Donghyuck was actually so nervous about fighting with Mark he had forgotten about him.

“Can I steal Donghyuck for a second?” he asks, scratching his head.

“No,” says Donghyuck, at the same time Jaemin says, “He’s all yours!”

They stare at each other, with Jeno looking worriedly between the three of them. 

“It’s about next week’s presentation Lee, it won’t take more than five minutes,” Minhyuk says - almost pleads - but Donghyuck shakes his head and makes a show of looking at his phone. “Oh, sorry! My next class is going to start like… right now! I’m already late! See you later, guys!”

Jeno waves weakly as he leaves in a hurry. Jaemin doesn’t say anything, but his eyes are too focused and sharp, following Donghyuck’s hasty retreat. Na Jaemin is smart. It won’t take him long to realize Donghyuck has been avoiding the TA since last Friday. Na Jaemin is also fiercely protective and loyal in his caustic, silent, Jaemin way. And he’s impulsive, which is why it would be better if he didn’t know anything about the TA.

☾

Donghyuck doesn’t go to his next class. He turns his phone off, goes home and spends the rest of the day at home listening to emo 90’s songs and reviewing old notes to dampen the guilt he feels for skipping classes. He ends up drawing little hearts on every page and losing his eraser under the bed, so he gives up, closes his eyes and simply naps.

He only wakes up forty minutes later, at the sound of at least six pans falling on the floor and waking up the entire building. He groggily drags himself towards the kitchen, where he finds Mark lost in contemplation of a packet of cup _yakisoba_.

“It doesn’t bite,” he says lightly, trying to gauge Mark’s reaction and see if he’s still angry. Luckily, Mark laughs, dispersing the tension between them. Donghyuck breathes.

“Did you have breakfast?” Donghyuck asks, just as Mark says, “Jaemin called.”

They look at each other until Donghyuck silently gives up his right to speak first.

“He asked about the TA again. He’s definitely onto you,” Mark says. He stares at one of the smaller pots while he talks, a little lost, like he’s holding some kind of alien device, then waves it towards Donghyuck.

“Give me that, masterchef,” says Donghyuck, with a small laugh. “You don’t need this. Go and get yourself some blood, you look dazed.”

“I already drank two bottles,” Mark says, scrunching his nose and looking at the content of the cup. “How do you make this? It didn’t come right last time I tried.”

Yes, Donghyuck remembers. It was soggy and tasteless, but Mark had made it for him so he ate every drop and thought it was delicious.

“Because this is not _ramyun_. You need to drain all the water before you throw the spices in.”

He watches Mark nod and repeat the instructions to himself. 

“Aren’t you like, two hundred years old? It’s a bit too late to learn how to make instant food…”

Mark laughs at that, a sneezy, endearingly cute old man laugh. “I’m not that old. Not even fifty years old. And I spent most of my human life at home and most of my vampire life at the nest before I graduated from the integration course and got my license and permission to go back to university. So I’m a baby vampire. But you still have to call me _hyung_ , brat.”

“You wish, Mark Lee! How was life at the nest?” Donghyuck asks, propping himself on the table while the hot water cooks the noodles.

“Boring. I couldn’t wait to get out, to be honest. But it wasn’t that different from the life I led before. I was sick, you know.”

No, Donghyuck doesn’t know. Mark is… It’s not that he’s secretive. It’s just that Donghyuck never believed they would last. He only decided to rent a room because he forgot to apply for in-campus dorms before the deadline and he needed a place to stay for the semester while Jeno and Jaemin shared their double three minutes away from the main building. In the beginning, he just thought his roommate was a loser and decided to ignore him. Then, he found out his roommate was a vampire, still a loser, but a vampire, so only fifty-percent loser and a good fifty-percent cool. And then…

Mark is not Donghyuck’s type. Donghyuck always falls for the wrong kind of guys. He likes bad boys who’d rather punch him than kiss him. He probably doesn’t think he deserves more than that, in some masochistic, self-destructive way. From this perspective, falling for Mark actually makes sense though. What’s more self-sabotaging than falling for a straight vampire who sees you as a toddler kind of baby brother?

“You were sick? Is that why you became a vampire?”

Mark nods and points to the styrofoam cup. “I think it’s ready. I’ll drain the water. Tell me if I’m doing it wrong.”

There’s no way to drain water wrong, thinks Donghyuck, but he doesn’t say anything because Mark starts talking again.

“I was sick. Cancer. In my brain. I was scheduled to be turned on my thirtieth birthday but they told me I wouldn’t even live that much. My mom applied for the vampire program, back when people like me could still afford it. Now the costs for becoming a vampire are so high only the richest among the richest can buy a license.”

“And so you became a vampire,” Donghyuck concludes for him, as Mark adds the spices and mixes the noodles.

“Is this alright?”

Donghyuck delicately plucks a noodle with chopsticks tastes it. His face opens in a big smile. It’s soggy, cheap instant food, but again, Mark made it for him.

“It’s perfect.”

“Now, do you want to tell me what happened today with the TA? I even cooked for you.”

“It depends. Will you tell me why you don’t want to drink my blood?” He recoils when Mark freezes and his eyes . “I don’t want to… impose, okay? I just want to know what I did wrong, so I won’t do it again.”

The kitchen is so silent at this time of the night. The lamp is old and its light too weak and the silence is thick and soft like cotton, and it’s like Donghyuck has suddenly realized, now, for the first time in months, there’s only the two of them in the tiny kitchen, only the two of them in the entire house, and suddenly the small, cramped kitchen feels too intimate, too exposing. Their tiny apartment is a minefield. There’s nowhere to run, when he’s here with Mark.

Mark scratches at his neck and nods, once. “Okay, I will tell you. But you start first.”

Oh, well, this Donghyuck can do. “Actually nothing happened. He found me in the cafeteria and told me he wanted to talk to me and I ran away as fast as I could and hid in my bed for the rest of the day. The end.”

“You skipped classes?”

What a goody-two-shoes. He looks so offended by the idea, Donghyuck can’t help but chuckle and Mark half-glares at him.

“Just for today. I’m allowed to feel down, for one day.”

“You should never feel down,” Mark says, sending Donghyuck a sideways glance. It’s so easy for him to say this kind of things. Donghyuck only has mean words and loud laughter to defend himself, but Mark’s honesty is soft and sharp at the same time and it gets him anyway. Everytime.

“I will actually have to talk to him sooner or later. Sooner that I’d like to, for sure. Professor Park’s conference is next week and we’ll probably go for drinks afterwards since the study group helped him gather the data.”

“Can’t you skip it?”

“Not really. It would be a good occasion to network and know some people who work in the field, maybe even find a good internship. But don’t worry, there’ll be many other people.” He omits it’ll be easy for Minhyuk to corner him, because he doesn’t want Mark to worry about him too much. Mark is so good at it, at caring for other people, at making them feel important. Donghyuck revels in the attention, like a moth drawn to a flame. He’s just waiting for the unavoidable burn.

“Do you want me to come with you? Like, as your date! Pretend date! I can glare at him, intimidate him.”

Donghyuck laughs before he can stop himself. The idea of Mark Lee - _Mark Lee_ \- coming with him as his date could have been a low blow, but the idea of Mark Lee trying to being intimidating is hilarious.

“You?” he asks, putting down the bowl before he makes a mess of himself from laughing too much. “You, intimidating someone? Oh, _hyung_ , you’re the less threatening person I know.”

Mark scrunches up his nose and frowns. “Hey! I can be threatening, if I want to.”

“Sure, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Sometimes, Donghyuck forgets Mark is a vampire. It’s easy to forget, when Mark nags about misplaced toiletries and drinks blood in Starbucks tumblers and wears Spiderman pajamas and he’s literally The Nicest Vampire Ever. It’s easy to think Mark wouldn’t hurt a fly. (And Mark probably wouldn’t hurt a fly, but that doesn’t mean he can’t.)

“Donghyuck,” he says, his voice low, so low.

“Wow, full name, very threatening Mr. Lee. I’m literally shaking.”

“Donghyuck,” repeats Mark, and Donghyuck fails to recognize the angry edge in his voice. Or maybe he does, and he doesn’t care, because it’s Mark Lee, he would never hurt him.

“What will you do now, will you… frown at me? Maybe glower, give me the big nasty eye-”

He doesn’t see Mark moving. His mind struggles to catch up with what is happening when he finds himself slammed against their tiny refrigerator, all the colorful magnets falling on the floor with a delicate clatter as he lets out a choked, silent gasp. It’s cold, seeping through his thin shirt and into his back. Mark’s fingers are cold against his jaw, tilting his chin up as he invades Donghyuck’s personal space, slipping one leg between Donghyuck’s thighs, pinning him against the refrigerator, unable to move.

Everything is cold, but Mark’s eyes are dark and angry and blown up as he steps even closer, trapping Donghyuck there until he’s too afraid to breathe, too aware of the lack of distance between them, of Mark’s lips close enough they might kiss if Donghyuck had the space to tiptoe into him.

“What are you doing?” he asks, in a whisper, too afraid of his own words being too loud between them, but Mark doesn’t answer. He’s looking at Donghyuck like he doesn’t see him, strangely focused, almost mesmerized, an alien gaze Donghyuck has never seen on him and that makes his blood race. And Mark feels it, of course, and his eyes darken even more - impossibly so. He starts to lean down, as if drawn towards Donghyuck’s neck, and that’s where Donghyuck starts to panic, because Mark is hot - Mark is not supposed to be hot, nor it is the time to find Mark hot, but Donghyuck thought about this at night, maybe he even dreamed about this - and blood is flowing to Donghyuck’s face and down, down, down and he feels dizzy and willing to let Mark do whatever he wants, which would be, really, a terrible idea.

“Get off me, come on, it’s not funny!”

He tries to push against Mark’s arms, but it’s like to trying to move a stone pillar. Mark doesn’t budge under his hands and he panics some more, and the more he panics the more Mark seems to be lured by his heartbeat until his lips kiss the curve of Donghyuck’s jaw, right under where his ear meets his neck, and he whispers, “Was this threatening enough for you, Lee Donghyuck?”

Donghyuck blinks and Mark smiles against his neck - the idiot freaking smiles - and when Donghyuck pushes against him, this time, he takes a step away. He looks… wild. His eyes are still darker than usual, his nostrils dilated, still affected by this… prank he pulled out of nowhere, but he’s smirking with some sort of triumph showing at the corners of his mouth, a victorious glee. Donghyuck wants to slap him and kiss him at the same time.

“You’re… you’re an asshole,” he manages to say, barely audible over the sound of his own heart screaming for mercy.

“No, Hyuck, you’re the asshole. You talk too much and you never respect me.”

Donghyuck punches him in the shoulder, even if he knows it’s useless. It’s, as usual, like punching a wall. Useless, but kinda good to express rage. And he has a lot of rage to express. 

“You scared the hell out of me!” he says, his voice cracking at the end. Mark’s smile grows a little wider.

“You said, I quote, _Sure, I’ll believe it when I see it_. So now do you believe I can be threatening?”

“You scared the hell out of me to get the upper hand in an argument? I can’t believe you’d stoop this low, this is _my_ level of pettiness! Who are you and what did you do to Mark Lee?”

“He spent too much time in your company,” Mark answers, patting Donghyuck’s back to help him calm down. “You’re ruining me.”

“You’re ruining me, _hyung_ , what the fuck. What the fuck.”

He forsakes his styrofoam bowl again to sprint towards the couch and flop on it. He feels way too hot. Mark, for once, felt way too hot too. _Control yourself Lee Donghyuck, he’s way out of your league. Control. Yourself._

“Did I scare you that bad, Hyuckie?”

Mark’s fingers card into his hair and Donghyuck whines against the pillow.

“No,” he lies. “I knew you weren’t going to bite me. You’re not scary and you’re even a bad bluff.”

Mark’s fingers scratch at his nape and he bites his bottom lip to keep himself from mewling.

“I wasn’t, I promise. It was just a stupid prank, you know I would never…”

“Yes, Mark, I know you don’t want my blood. You made it pretty clear.”

Mark sighs and sits next to him. “It’s not that I don’t want your blood, Hyuckie. I’m a vampire, of course I want your blood. But…”

He pauses and Donghyuck opens an eye and turns to look at him.

“Let’s make a deal,” says Mark, but Donghyuck interrupts him with a pout.

“We’ve already made a deal.”

“Then let’s make a new deal. I talk, you eat, okay?” He points towards the coffee table, where Donghyuck sees his noodles. He nods, quickly, and starts eating.

“I never really wanted to become a vampire,” says Mark, looking at his hands laid neatly on his lap, the fingers intertwined. “I thought I would live the years I had left to live and then die, but then my years ended too quickly and I was afraid so here I am, but… I didn’t want this. For a long time, I hated being a vampire, I hated this… borrowing someone else’s energy, drinking their blood. I thought I could live on frozen bags and pretend it was raspberry juice forever.” He pointedly looks at Donghyuck and Donghyuck looks back until he realizes Mark is waiting for him to start eating again before he continues. He complies.

“Then what happened?” he asks, his mouth full of noodles.

“Then Taeyong sent me to therapy,” he mutters, in the end.

“And what did the therapist say?”

“That I wasn’t living my new condition in a healthy way and that I needed to find a balance. And this is it. This is my balance. I don’t live with the other vampires in the nest, I live here. I go to night classes, I work at the lab. I’m friends with you. I’m a vampire, okay, I’ve learnt to accept this, but I’m still trying to live the life I’ve always wanted. I’m trying to make things work. I don’t want you to think I’m scary…”

“I don’t! I wouldn’t! Come on, you’re not scary at all!” 

Mark sends him a pointed look, as if to remind him of what happened five minutes ago. He has a point, but Donghyuck still thinks it’s not fair.

“That’s different! You were purposefully trying to scare me!”

Mark sighs, inching away from Donghyuck before he talks. “I would like to say it’s not something personal, but it is personal. I can’t do this with you. I can’t do it because it’s you. If I drink your blood once, I’ll be able to smell it on you forever and it could be difficult to keep living here. You’re not food, you’re… You’re Donghyuck. You live here, you’re always around, and I like you. We’re friends.”

He looks at Donghyuck with his big, wide eyes and he sounds so sincere, so calm and warm and put together and rational about it, even if he’s just broken Donghyuck’s heart. And Donghyuck has always been a pleaser, to the point of self-destruction, so he just nods and smiles and says, “Of course, _hyung_. I will not ask again then. Thank you for telling me.”

He finishes his noodles as quickly as he can and smiles some more and runs to his room and misses the way Mark sighs and hides his face in his hands when he’s gone.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> watch me single-handedly end ha minhyuk's arc without a single shred of regret because now it's time to focus on markhyuck finally getting somewhere that's it that's my author notes
> 
> ok no i also wanted to thank you all for the incredible support you have given this fic. you're the real mvps and i can't wait to give you all what you deserve (markhyuck going back to being domestic and gross). every single one of your comments made my day and i'll make sure to reply to all of them before the next update (real life got in the way this time ;;) i love you all ♥

☼

Jeno and Jaemin are already waiting at their usual table on the last floor of the giant Dunkin Donuts behind their university when Donghyuck arrives, tired, wet, disheveled and wearing a pair of sunglasses that is twenty shades of inappropriate considering it’s raining outside.

They exchange a glance when Donghyuck flops on the chair in front of them and lays his head on his crossed arms. Jeno slides a donut towards him and Donghyuck takes a small bite.

“Ok,” Jaemin says, “since we’re finally all here, we can start from the reason of this reunion today.” He points towards Donghyuck. “What happened between you and Ha Minhyuk?”

“It’s not important,” Donghyuck answers with a sigh.

“It is important Donghyuck, we need to talk about it.”

“I might be in love with Mark.”

Both Jaemin and Jeno freeze. They exchange another glance, longer and more panicked, and another one again when Donghyuck slides his glasses off and lays them on the table, revealing puffy, red eyes.

“Okay, well, this is an absolute priority. Did you cry? Shall I look for a wooden stick? Holy water? Silver?”

The thing, with Jaemin, is that he’s always been really protective of Donghyuck, in a harsh, stubborn only-I-can-hit-you way. Except the thing Donghyuck needs now is not retaliation. He shakes his head and, to his friend’s utmost horror (and his own too) he sobs.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he says, flailing at their panic. Then he steals Jeno’s hot cocoa and gulps down a big, searing hot sip of it, just to get high on endorphins and stop crying.

“I’ve just… I think I’ve been friendzoned,” he says, in a voice so tiny Jeno and Jaemin both come closer saying, “What?”

“Friendzoned, okay? By Mark Lee. I didn’t even… It’s so stupid, I never even tried to go for him. And it’s not like I wasn’t expecting he would want me back, but it still hurts.” He’s not making any sense, but he can’t stop. “I’ve spent the whole night holding it in, waiting for Mark to go to sleep, and as soon as the sun rose I started crying and I cried for hours and now my head hurts.”

He feels a soft pressure on his arm and he finds Jeno patting his lightly. “You deserve better than him anyway.”

Jeno really sucks at comforting people. Moreover, he’s wrong. No one as good as Mark will ever like Donghyuck, let alone someone better than Mark. Nevertheless, Donghyuck appreciates the effort, so he nods and leans his head against Jeno’s shoulder while Jaemin orders a sparkling lemonade and more donuts, with chocolate. And one with fake Bavarese cream.

Donghyuck eats until his stomach is bursting, sniffles against the hem of Jeno’s hoodie and swears he’ll never fall in love again.

“I’m sorry Hyuck,” Jaemin says, when Jeno leaves to look for the toilet. “I really wanted you to be happy, this time. I mean, Mark seemed really smitten with you.”

“Mark is just… nice.” He spits the word out with all the venom he can muster, with isn’t much. Even now, ugly and swollen and with his head pounding, he can’t hate on Mark because he knows Mark wants only the best for him. Mark is sincere and pure and really values their friendship, unlike Donghyuck who decided to unilaterally lust over his roommate and ruin things for everyone.

Jaemin purses his lips, looking like he really wants to say something.

“Come on,” Donghyuck says in a tired exhale. “Say it.”

“Being super nice doesn’t mean Mark can’t make mistakes. I’ve seen you two together Hyuck, you had stars in your eyes whenever you looked at him, there’s no way he never noticed. But he didn’t treat you like a friend. He knew you had a crush on him and he did everything to encourage it and that in my house means that he kinda led you on.”

Donghyuck shakes his head, unconvinced, and Jaemin slams his fist on the table.

“Listen, okay, he doesn’t like you like that. Who cares! You still have us.” He throws an arm around Donghyuck, drawing him closer and Donghyuck sniffles once and closes his eyes.

“You’re the best best friends in the world, what would I do without you?”

“Eat less donuts, probably.”

Donghyuck nods. “I don’t want to go home tonight, can I stay at your place?”

Jaemin thinks about it. “Yes can do. I doubt my roommate will mind sleeping on the floor for you.”

The roommate chooses that moment to come back, carrying more donuts – “Hyuck needs to eat to retrieve all the energy he lost while crying for Mark-hyung!” – and Donghyuck smiles. He loves his friends.

☾

In the end, they all sleep on the floor, Jeno and Jaemin sandwiching Donghyuck on an inflatable mattress they bought for late cramming nights. Donghyuck sends a message to Mark saying he won’t come home tonight and Mark replies with a sad emoji.

It’s only the first of a long series of sad emoji Mark sends Donghyuck over the span of the next week. Donghyuck knows it’s stupid - if Mark had even half a hunch about Donghyuck’s out of control crush on him, this behavior can only confirm it - but he can’t help it. He thinks about facing Mark and his heart does the somersaults. So he doesn’t. Life still goes on.

“I can’t believe you went from being in denial about your crush to being heartbroken to simply being plain stupid, just like that.”

They’re at the end of the long table, tucked against the wall, watching their meat fry and shrivel, and the only two people who could listen to them right now are Cho Hyeyeon, sitting right next to Jaemin, and Hwang Hyunjin, sitting right next to Donghyuck, and they’re too busy arguing about staminal cells to snoop around Donghyuck’s love life, or lack thereof.

“I wish I was still in denial. I miss Mark. I want to go home.”

“Then go home.”

“And what do I tell him? Sorry if I disappeared for days? He probably knows I like him by now…”

“He already knew that,” Jaemin hisses. “We’ve been over this, Hyuck. Trust me, he knew.”

“Well, now he probably knows _more_ , now he has leveled up from strong possibility to crushing certainty, and things will be even more awkward between us. I know Mark. He’s always awkward, if he gets even worse we’ll just never be able to talk to each other again and I don’t want to…”

“Is everything alright here?” Both boys stop what they’re doing and turn towards the Ha Minhyuk, who’s coming with more soju. Donghyuck can already feel Mark’s disapproving voice echoing in his head.

“Everything fine,” Jaemin says, flashing Minhyuk an angelic smile.

“Hyunjin is asking for you,” Minhyuk says. Jaemin sends a worried look to Donghyuck – in the end, they never got to talk about what happened with the TA – and after he receives back a tiny nod he excuses himself to join his lab partner, leaving Donghyuck alone with Minhyuk.

“You seemed distracted all night… Are you having fun?” Minhyuk asks, looking at Donghyuck, and normally Donghyuck would have no time to spare for Ha Minhyuk and his conflicting sexual crisis, but he feels so out of it that he barely realizes the TA sliding next to him on Jaemin’s seat, close enough that their thighs are touching under the table.

“I’ve been waiting to talk to you for weeks,” Minhyuk says, almost uncomfortably close. His elbow bumps against Donghyuck’s when he moves closer to pour him a shot.

“Well, I was busy,” Donghyuck says, looking at the soju splash inside the glass. He pretends to take a sip out of courtesy, but the shot comes back on the table untouched. Mark would be proud of him.

“Do you have time later? I think we might need to talk.”

Donghyuck sighs. He postponed this moment way too long, didn’t he? 

“Okay,” he says.

“Just like that, okay?”

“I can ghost on you again if you prefer. Give me a time and a place and I’ll make sure not to be there if that’s your kink. But it’s been almost two weeks, I can’t keep ignoring you for longer than this.”

“You always have a quick reply for everything, Lee Donghyuck, and I like that about you.”

“You seem to like a lot of things about me, _hyung,_ ” he mutters, under his breath, low enough that only Minhyuk can hear it in the clatter of the restaurant, “but you don’t like me enough, apparently.”

Minhyuk has the decency to look guilty. Good. He deserves it.

Donghyuck turns his attention to the meat on the grill while Minhyuk chats with Hyeyeon. Everyone is laughing and everything is too loud and a little too hot and Minhyuk is too close, cornering Donghyuck against the wall, his presence solid and overbearing even now that he’s not talking to him.

He’s so dazed he barely notices Siyeon swinging a leg on the bench to sit next to Hyeyeon and whisper something excitedly to her. He snaps out of it when he hears the word _vampires_.

“What did you say?” he asks, suddenly feeling awake.

“I said there’s a mixed group in one of the private rooms, some of them are vampires! I bumped into one of them while I looked for the toilet. They’re so hot!”

Hyeyeon giggles. “Did you know Donghyuck’s roommate is a vampire?” she says, and almost the whole table turns towards him. He blushes, turning towards Jaemin for help, but he’s still stuck in a heated conversation with his advisor.

“Yeah, Mark is a vampire,” he says, “and he’s really nice.”

“Can you introduce him to me?” Siyeon asks, leaning over the table to bat her eyelashes at Donghyuck and almost burning herself on the grill. “I’ve always wanted to kiss a vampire.”

“Not nice enough to kiss you for charity, Siyeonie,” he says with a smile that feels a little too tight because she’s not the only one who wants to kiss a vampire. She tells him he’s heartless and, in exchange, he flicks his fingers against her forehead and tells her it’ll never happen and she whines and that’s when he looks up and meets Mark’s eyes looking at him, equally flustered, equally confused, from the other side of the room.

He’s flushed, a sight Donghyuck could’ve only imagined before today, and there’s the tiniest hint of blood at the edge of his mouth. He licks it clean unconsciously when he notices Donghyuck staring. Then his expression clouds and Donghyuck realizes how this must look like to him, Donghyuck feverish and smelling of alcohol, another boy almost wrapped around him. 

Donghyuck immediately looks down, closes his eyes and wishes to become invisible. Minhyuk bumps into him as he turns to pluck some meat from the grill, and his touch burns. There’s not enough air to breathe in the room.

When he opens his eyes again, Mark is still there, still looking at him. That’s when Donghyuck notices he’s not alone either. He’s with a girl, a pretty girl, wearing a pink dress and cute lipstick and smiling at Mark under her bangs. Mark doesn’t smile back. Mark doesn’t even see her. He just looks at Donghyuck, not breaking eye contact until someone - Yuta, probably - says something to him and he turns to the side and that’s when Donghyuck knows he needs to bail.

He tries to send an SOS signal at Jaemin on the other side of the room, but he’s too busy retelling Professor Min the story of that incident with the microscope at her midterm, last semester, and Donghyuck can’t afford to wait for him and waste one week of successfully avoiding Mark just to meet him here completely out of the blue. He grabs his coat, leaves some money on the table even though Professor Park will probably end up paying for everything and leaves the room as quickly as he can, only to be stopped in the corridor by… Ha Minhyuk.

“Are you leaving already?” he asks, holding Donghyuck’s sleeve as if to keep him from disappearing. “I thought you said you weren’t going to ghost on me this time.”

Donghyuck groans. This is _not_ the time to have _that_ talk with Minhyuk.

“Well, something came up. I swear it’s legit this time,” he says, trying to escape Minhyuk’s hold. He deeply regrets not having this conversation earlier, so he wouldn’t have to do it right now, with one eye on the street to find an escape route and the other on the door of the restaurant to check if Mark is going to follow him.

“I just wanted to apologize, for last time,” Minhyuk says. “We were a bit drunk, we got carried away. You’re a good kid, Donghyuck, and a good _dongsaeng_ , but you’re not... It wasn’t right, you know?”

He looks so sad while he says it. And Donghyuck knows he’s lying. He wasn’t that drunk. He wasn’t drunk at all. He did it because he wanted to do it. He’s sad because he liked it. And in another universe, Donghyuck might have been masochistic enough to fall for that sadness, he might have tried to make Ha Minhyuk change his mind. In this universe, he just heaves a breath of relief. It’s not his responsibility to solve Ha Minhyuk’s problems. And it’s not the right time or the right place either.

“It’s fine,” he just says in the end. “I just want to apologize too, for disappearing and refusing to talk to you.”

“I just hope I didn’t break your heart, or something.”

Donghyuck laughs at that. “It’s not that easy, hyung, you don’t need to worry about me.” 

And he doesn’t, really. The only one who can break Donghyuck’s heart is Mark, at this point, and Mark is too nice, too pristine and neat and proper, to break stuff. Even worthless stuff like Donghyuck’s heart.

“I’m glad we’re okay again.” Minhyuk says, winding an arm over Donghyuck’s shoulder to draw him closer. “I’m glad too, _hyung_ , I really am! But now I really need to go before…”

He wriggles free from the senior’s hold and turns to leave, just as the door of one of the private rooms open and Mark Lee tumbles outside, followed by the pretty girl in her pretty pink dress and blood marring the left side of her neck.

☾

For a moment they all freeze. Minhyuk and Donghyuck on one side, Mark and the girl on the other. Mark’s eyes are warm and hazy. They almost seem to have a tinge of red, like blood creeping underneath dark waters. He must have drunk a lot tonight, Donghyuck realizes, his eyes immediately finding the traces of blood on the girl’s neck. Something bitter and thick twists in his stomach and he has to look away.

Mark’s flustered expression sharpens when he sees Minhyuk’s hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder and he looks on the verge of saying something, but Donghyuck cuts him off and tries to walk past him and Mark panics and cries, “Hey, wait! Hyuck!” and then someone opens the door of the private room and Youngho steps out, tall and elegant. He takes a moment to assess the situation, before his frown opens in a wide smile meant only for Donghyuck.

“Oh, look, our favorite human! Fancy meeting you here, Donghyuck!”

He waltzes past Mark, pries Donghyuck’s forearm away from Minhyuk’s hand and pats his head. “We were just talking about you and wondering what you were up to. Are you here with some friends?”

“Yeah,” he says, faintly aware of Mark looking both murderous and confused next to them. “We’re in the main room.”

“Of course you are. And are you having fun?”

He shrugs, unsure of how he’s supposed to answer. “Well, actually I was just leaving and…”

Johnny smiles like the cat who just got the milk - or the blood, or something. “Already? Why don’t you join us for a while? I can take both of you home later, when we’re done!”

“What? I mean, I don’t want to intrude.”

Youngho ignores the look of panic flashing in both Donghyuck’s and Mark’s face and claps his hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder. (It’s like being hit by a sturdy hammer. Donghyuck has to bite back a groan.)

“Ah, don’t worry, you wouldn’t be intruding at all! I’m more worried about you feeling uncomfortable among all us old vampires, but you wouldn’t be the only human. Yoonoh is here too tonight. You haven’t met Yoonoh yet, haven’t you?”

Donghyuck shakes his head and Youngho beams.

“See? Then you’re welcome to join us! Actually, he’ll be happy to finally meet you. Mark only talks about you nowadays…”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Mark says, stepping between Youngho and Donghyuck, and if Donghyuck was just a little more delusional he’d believe Mark is embarrassed. 

Next to Donghyuck, Minhyuk fidgets, looking rather out of place. He steals a worried glance at Youngho’s wide smile, then another, even more worried, at Mark’s angry frown. Then he makes a confused eye contact with Donghyuck, as if asking him if he knows what is going on.

“Do you know these people?” he asks, under his breath, as if vampires couldn’t hear his heartbeat from the other room anyway. Donghyuck nods sheepishly.

“He’s my roommate,” he says, pointing towards Mark without looking at him. “He’s here with the rest of his coven. Yeah, I know them.”

“Oh. Do you want to go with them?” He looks ready to fight to protect Donghyuck, which is really funny because Mark must have realized who he is and looks ready to fight him first.

Donghyuck shrugs again.

“I...”

He’s interrupted by the girl with blood on her neck, who scoffs and taps her foot on the floor, impatiently.

“Look, all of this is really nice and I’m glad you’ve met your friend here, but can I go? It’s a bit late for me.”

Youngho turns towards her, the perfect gentleman. “I’m sorry Sungyeon, we’ve been keeping you. Don’t be a tool Mark, her taxi is waiting.”

Mark jumps, startled, and immediately offers her his arm again. She waves at Youngho and her eyes lingers for a moment on Donghyuck before Mark whisks her away, not without sending a last, puppy-eyed, conflicted look at Donghyuck. The last thing they hear as Mark holds the door open is the girl chirping an excited, teasing, “Wait, was that the boy-” and then the door closes at their backs.

Donghyuck realizes he’d been holding his breath, so he exhales, inhales and turns towards Youngho.

“Look,” he says, “I’d accept, but I can’t. Not tonight, okay? Maybe next time?”

Panics creeps in his voice and he looks at the door, expecting Mark to come in any moment now. He’s probably kissing the girl goodbye, if Donghyuck is lucky he’ll be able to slip past him and run towards the train station. Jaemin is still inside, but he can always ring up Jeno to come down and open the door for him.

“I don’t think it would be safe for you to leave now, Hyuck, especially if you’re only doing that to avoid talking to Mark,” Youngho says. “You’re a fool if you think he won't be waiting for you outside. He’s been wanting to talk to you for a while.”

“What do I do?” he asks, more and more panicked.

Next to him, Minhyuk still looks lost. “Wait, I wasn’t the only one… You’re also ghosting on your roommate?” He straightens up at Donghyuck’s groan. “Do you want me to take you to the subway station? That way, if he talks to you, I can… tell him to go away?”

The irony of the proposal is not lost on Donghyuck, but he shakes his head. “I think you should go back inside, _sunbae_ ,” he says. 

“And maybe invest in garlic and a silver cross for any good measure,” Youngho adds. “Mark doesn’t really like you.”

“Oh.” He thinks about it and the light of awareness finally dawns on him. “ _Oh._ I’m… I’m the other man.”

Wait, what?”

“Did I… make things difficult for you?” continues Minhyuk. “Did you fight with your boyfriend because of me? I swear, I didn’t know you were seeing someone when I kissed you.”

“I’m… I’m not…” Donghyuck looks at Youngho, silently asking for help, and Youngho sighs.

“You should really go back inside, young man, before you make things even more complicated.”

Minhyuk nods, a little dazed. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?” he asks, his hand on the door handle, and Donghyuck nods resolutely, if only to get rid of him and his assumptions.

“Don’t worry, they’re my friends. It’s just… Look, nevermind, I’ll see you on Monday. Also, if you could tell Jaemin I’m going back with Mark…”

“Consider it done.”

He sends a last amazed glance at Youngho and leaves.

“So that was the infamous Ha Minhyuk.” Youngho says, with a soft whistle. “It seemed like you were finally able to clear things up with him.”

It wasn’t even that bad, Donghyuck considers, letting out a relieved sigh. Deep down, he’d been afraid of Minhyuk turning on him and calling him names, or worse, bullying him in class.

“He was unexpectedly civil about it. He even apologized and everything.”

“A real gentleman, though apparently a little stolid.” Youngho comments. “Are you done with clearing things up for tonight? Because if you leave now your problem number one is going to be waiting for you on the other side of that door.”

At the thought of facing Mark and his dark, hot confusing rage and his nice words and his big, big eyes, Donghyuck almost feels his legs give out. “Can’t you sneak me out?” he begs. “Just once.” 

Youngho shakes his head. “Not really, no. There’s only one door and I’m sure he’s already considered the option of you sneaking out of the toilet window. He’s going to find you anyway, Hyuck, which is why you should come in with me. Mark won’t be able to corner you in front of us and if you still don’t want to talk to him after the dinner is over I’ll personally drive you anywhere you want.”

Donghyuck hesitates. Youngho is not his friend, he’s clearly one of Mark’s friends, but there’s something reassuring in his dark eyes. He looks tall and cool and imposing and everything a vampire should be, but his smile is warm and a little dorky and sometimes he sends Donghyuck pudu pictures saying they reminded him of Donghyuck’s face.

He sighs. “Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise,” Youngho says, and then gives Donghyuck a highfive that almost sends him flying against the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know I had promised a double update... This isn't a double update but it's not a single update either, it's... one update and a half! I added another scene at the end so that this chapter didn't end with a cliffhanger because I love my readers too much. I still feel sorry because all the juicy stuff (including the long awaited confrontation!) is gonna happen in the next chapter, but I realized I didn't want to rush through the next scenes, so please bear with me a little longer!


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time and I'm sorry. Life got in the way. Friends visiting, family bothering, getting sick and a lot of other amenities kept me from writing. Moreover, I was never happy with /the/ scene and it took a lot of time to write it right, but I'm finally satisfied.  
> Before you read this chapter, a couple of people have told me this fic doesn't have a definite plot. They didn't mean it as a criticism and I didn't take it as one, but I'd like to make it clear for everyone: it is true that this fic's plot is not definite as... any of my other fics, and it's because I wanted it that way. I like how it came out, even if it's different from my other works, and I'm really happy that other people liked it.  
> I hope you enjoy the chapter ♥

Vampires, Donghyuck thinks, are a lot like idols.

They’re extremely good looking, tend to appear in a lot of movies and people are a bit obsessed with them. They follow a special diet. Oh, and they usually go out when it’s dark, wearing sunglasses, face mask and a large hat.

Like with idols, it’s not easy to meet one. It’s not difficult either, because vampires, just like idols, at the end of the day are just people. They like to go out with their friends and watch movies and play bowling and spend the entire night at a _noraebang_ singing their heart out. They’re just really private about it.

It’s not like everyone has a vampire friend, but there’s always that friend of a friend of a friend who knows a vampire. And now Donghyuck kinda is that friend, but to be honest he only really knows Mark (who, other than being cold and hard like a marble pillar, doesn’t even look that much like a vampire) and before meeting him he had never talked to a vampire in his life, which sort of explains why now he feels so uneasy and tense to the prospect of meeting an entire coven.

“How many people are going to be in there, exactly?” he asks, as he follows Youngho along the corridor and up the stairs. 

Youngho looks at his clenched fists and hunched shoulders and snickers. “Why? Are you nervous?”

“Can you tell?” Donghyuck asks back, dripping sarcasm.

“Don’t worry, you met almost everyone. You already know Taeyong and I’m sure you’ve met Yuta, and also little Renjun. And, like I said, today we have Yoonoh and also Kun. Taeil didn’t make it, but you won’t be the only human.”

“So no one will stare at me?” he asks, dubious.

Youngho’s smile shows a hint of fangs.

“Well, you’re the one who’s playing with our Mark’s heart. Of course everyone will stare at you.”

Before Donghyuck can complain, and mostly deny - it’s Mark who’s playing with his heart - Youngho opens the door at the end of the corridor and there’s no choice left for him but to get inside.

The loud chattering dies as everyone in the room turns towards him. It’s awkward and thankfully short, just the time to feel extremely out of place and stared at and _average_ among all of these pretty faces, before everyone turns to their own conversations and pretends they’re not paying attention to him. Donghyuck has to clench his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering from how nervous he is.

He sticks close to Youngho and looks around the room until his eyes find Taeyong, the coven leader.

“Donghyuck! What are you doing here?” he says, feigning surprise. (As if they all didn’t know Donghyuck was there since the moment he made eye-contact with Mark back in the main room.)

“University dinner. Youngho found me as I was about to leave.”

Taeyong nods, slowly, but also exchanges the quickest glance with Youngho before his eyes find Donghyuck’s again. He has sharp eyes, Lee Taeyong, sharp, handsome features and even the way he talks is a little sharp and stiff, like he’s trying to remember how to sound human, but according to Mark that has nothing to do with him being a vampire. “Taeyong-hyung is just awkward,” Mark said to Donghyuck the first time Taeyong came to visit and Donghyuck was so intimidated by his beauty that he couldn’t even talk to him. 

“I’m glad to see you,” Taeyong says, in the end. “It’s been a couple of months.”

“You don’t come to visit anymore, _hyung_ ,” Donghyuck whines, and Taeyong shrugs, but the smile he sends Donghyuck is soft and authentic. 

Youngho smiles too and pushes Donghyuck towards one of the low tables in the middle of the room. “Stop flirting with the leader of the coven or Mark will throw a fit,” he whispers, before he takes the empty seat next to Taeyong and gestures for Donghyuck to find somewhere to sit too.

Donghyuck sends him a half-panicked, half-betrayed look, but Youngho simply ignores him to whisper something in Taeyong’s ear. Well, thank-fucking-you. He’s never trusting a vampire again for the rest of his life.

As he scans the room for a friendly face, his eyes meet Renjun’s, and the young vampire waves and pats the free cushion next to him, beckoning Donghyuck over.

“Wow, you really came! Where’s Mark? I wanna record his reaction when he finds you here...”

Donghyuck shoves him lightly, wincing as he remembers vampires are not to be shoved, or punched, or hit in any way. Now his arm is going to bruise.

“Why wouldn’t I come? I already know most of you anyway,” he says, flopping down next to Renjun.

“Yes, but Mark is really jealous of you, you know? We ask him to bring you every time, but he doesn’t want our dirty fangs anywhere near his pretty roommate.”

Renjun talks too much, Donghyuck thinks, as heat simmers under his skin at the thought of Mark calling him pretty. Renjun is probably exaggerating, but still... 

Renjun’a smile widens and he leans even closer. “You smell really good,” he says, nosing at the curve of Donghyuck’s jaw. “Is it true you’ve offered Mark to drink from you and he refused? Did he pop a vessel when you asked him?”

From other side of the table, Yuta stops trying to impress an unimpressed girl to tell Renjun to stop prying. “Mark will kick your ass if you keep harassing his human,” he says, as Donghyuck sputters and blushes through another wave of heat.

Renjun scoffs. “I could kick Mark Lee’s ass if I wanted,” he says, to which Yuta raises a skeptical eyebrow. 

“So, did you eat?” Renjun asks, turning towards Donghyuck again. “Should we order something?”

His Korean is a little stilted as he calls a waitress and asks her to bring a bottle of soju. He opens it with minimal effort and pours the alcohol for Donghyuck. After refusing to drink for the entire night, this time Donghyuck swallows the whole thing down in one shot.

“Does Mark know you’re here?” Renjun asks, pouring another one and watching as Donghyuck gulps it down just like the first one.

“I guess he does, by now. Do you think he’ll be angry?”

Renjun hums. “Who knows. But don’t worry, if he acts out of line in front of the entire coven, Taeyong will beat his ass. You’re safe with us.”

Donghyuck laughs, finally relaxing. He likes Renjun, who’s tiny and delicate and made of porcelain and mischief. Renjun is one of the baby vampires of the covens, even younger than Mark, so young he’s not even allowed to live on his own and he needs adult supervision to leave the nest. Adult supervision usually comes in the form of Sicheng, who’s almost prettier than Taeyong and always pets Donghyuck’s head with an endeared smile when he sees him. 

Donghyuck scans the table until he finds him, immersed in an animated conversation with Yuta and another man Donghyuck doesn’t know who looks one hundred percent human.

“That’s Kun- _ge_ ,” Renjun supplies, leaning against Donghyuck. “He’s Sicheng’s personal walking snack.”

“He's human, right?” Donghyuck asks.

“He is, yes! Sicheng met him through one of those dating apps for vampires. They even tried to date for a while, but they work better as friends. I’m still trying to understand if their friendship comes with benefits, though.”

Sicheng frowns and looks like he’s going to tell Renjun to mind his own business, but ultimately decides to ignore him.

“Why are you calling him _ge_?” Donghyuck asks. “Aren’t you older than him?”

Renjun laughs out loud. He has a really nice laugh, melodious and liquid and velvety. Mark once told Donghyuck every vampire has weapons meant to make human fall in love with them easily. For Renjun, it’s definitely his voice. He’d never dare to charm a human in front of the entire coven, but his laugh is still really pretty and Donghyuck finds himself wanting to get closer to him. He kinda does, scooting over until their knees are bumping and Renjun’s hair tickle his cheek when he tilts his head.

“I call him _ge_ because it gets on his nerves,” Renjun says, and smiles angelically as Kun flips him the finger. Now that Donghyuck notices, he and Kun are not the only humans at the table. A baby-faced boy next to Taeyong and Johnny, the girl sitting on Yuta’s lap (who’s probably just pretending to listen to him) and another who’s talking to Doyoung as he kisses her wrist far too long for it to be just a kiss. Donghyuck flushes bright red when he realizes he’s feeding.

“Some of them work here,” Renjun explains, following the line of Donghyuck’s gaze. “The boy with Jungwoo, the girls with Doyoung and Yuta and the one who left with Mark.” Donghyuck suddenly feels like a weight has been lifted off his chest. Relief floods his lungs like cold water and for a moment he can breath. So, the girl is not Mark’s girlfriend. Well, he could’ve realized it himself, hadn’t he been so keen on his little self-commiseration show.

“Kun is here because he’s Sicheng’s special friend,” Renjun continues, “and the boy sitting next to Taeyong is Yoonoh. Taeyong is funding is education in exchange for his blood twice a week.”

Yoonoh looks up and waves shyly at Donghyuck, leaning over the table to glare at Renjun. “Is the little demon saying something mean to you?”

“Me?” Renjun asks, bringing a hand up to his heart. “I could never! Just showing him around! By the way, Yoonoh, this is Lee Donghyuck. Hyuck, Jung Yoonoh.”

“So, you’re Mark’s roommate. He surely talks a lot about you,” Yoonoh says, and his smile widens, eyes sparkling in amusement.

“Does he?” Donghyuck asks, a little confused. He feels like they’re sharing an inside joke and he’s not getting it.

Renjun comes even closer, winging a slim, unsuspectedly strong arm around Donghyuck’s shoulder, and smiles so wide Donghyuck can see his sharp tiny fangs. “Do you want to know what he says?”

Then his smile pales, and before Donghyuck can process why a hand clamps on Renjun’s shoulder and Mark himself leans down to whisper in his ear.

“Do you want to die, Injunnie?”

☾

The complete realization of his own stupidity falls upon Donghyuck the moment he hears Mark’s voice. First, he likes Mark. He’s liked Mark for months and he’s missed Mark terribly in the last week. Second, Jaemin was right and he shouldn’t have avoided Mark, because now the only way to explain _why_ he was avoiding Mark is confessing and getting unnecessarily crushed by the unavoidable rejection. Third, there’s no way he can get out of this situation without talking to Mark now. Hiding in the bathroom for the entire night was his only chance and he wasted it and now Mark is here and he won’t let go until he gets an answer.

Oh, and, fourth. Mark is angry.

Donghyuck doesn’t even dare to look up, but he sees Renjun flinch as Mark’s hold on his shoulder tightens. 

Yoonoh looks between the three of them and tries to salvage the situation. ”Were you personally driving her home? What took you so long?”

“I took a walk to clear my head” Mark replies. He nudges Renjun away with his foot and slips in the space he created between him and Donghyuck.

He’s warm. It’s the first thing Donghyuck notices, because Mark is never warm. He’s cold and smooth and he smells like laundry soap, delicate, a little flowery. Except this Mark is warm and sweaty and he smells like blood, coppery and heavy, and it makes Donghyuck’s head spin.

“Hi,” he says, low and warm and angry, “long time no see.” His hand is heavy and tense on Donghyuck’s hip, burning through the clothes like ice on naked skin, and Donghyuck nods and blushes and thinks about slipping away, but he doesn’t dare to.

“Yeah, I’ve been busy,” he says, feeling his voice croak at the end.

“I see,” Mark says, only, before he turns towards Yoonoh. “What did I miss?”

Yoonoh is considerate enough not to talk about Donghyuck. He tells Mark gossip about Koeun’s new human boyfriend and Yuta butts in to show Mark the texts he’s exchanging with a cute Japanese vampire and ask his opinion on long-distance relationships. 

Mark and Donghyuck don’t talk. Not immediately. Donghyuck just nods, not trusting his voice around Mark, and pours himself another shot of soju, ignoring the way Mark’s jaw tightens when he drinks. They don’t talk until Renjun leaves to join Kun and Sicheng on the other side of the table and Yoonoh turns to answer something Taeyong asked and Mark leans back against the wall, dragging Donghyuck with him. They land in an ungraceful heap stuck between two walls and the table, so close Donghyuck is half-sitting on Mark’s lap. He flushes and wonders if he’s making Mark uncomfortable, but when he tries to straighten his back and put some distance between them, Mark throws an arm around him and keeps him there.

“I met Jaemin outside,” he says, under his breath. He sounds calmer now. It’s a bit unfair that, even if he’s angry, even if he has every right to be angry, he’s still making an effort to not let it show, for Donghyuck’s sake. (It makes Donghyuck feel even worse.) “He said you disappeared suddenly. Then I realized you must have come here with Youngho.”

“He wanted to introduce Yoonoh to me. He looks like a nice guy.”

“Did they treat you well?” Mark asks, light and low, against Donghyuck’s cheek. The words travel under his skin, thrumming through blood and flesh like liquid heat. Something clenches and unclenches in him. He wants to jerk away. He wants to inch closer, rubbing his warmth on Mark’s pale skin. “Are you having fun?” 

“Yes? I don’t know, it’s kinda bugging me that everyone is probably listening to our conversation in Dolby Surround, but...” He closes his eyes and grimaces as the little soju he drank before Mark’s arrival goes straight to his head.  
“How much did you drink?” Mark asks. His thumb is drawing circles in Donghyuck’s shoulder and maybe, just maybe, Donghyuck purrs.

 _Enough to taste courage at the back of my throat,_ he wants to answer. Instead, he leans even closer, tucking his chin on Mark’s shoulder. “Enough to give you alcohol poisoning, if you were to bite me,” he joke.

The fingers caressing his arm suddenly dig in the soft muscle and Donghyuck yelps.

“Play nice, Donghyuck,” says Mark, his voice dangerously low, dangerously close. 

“I’m always nice,” he mutters, and Mark fingers travel up his shoulder, following the curve of his neck over the clothes. He hooks them under Donghyuck’s chin, trying to tilt his head up and see Donghyuck’s face, but Donghyuck just hides his face in Mark’s neck, refusing to look up.

“You’re not nice when you’re avoiding me,” Mark says, and it’s low enough that Donghyuck barely caught it, even though he’s sure everyone else heard it loud and clear because he hears Taeyong clear his throat and Mark immediately lets him go, as if burnt.

“Sorry,” he murmurs, and he tries to disentangle himself from Donghyuck, but Donghyuck is really tired of missing Mark, tired of running away. He pulls Mark down again, keeping him from leaving.

“I’m sorry too.”

They don’t talk much, after that. Mark talks to everyone else, but Donghyuck just leans into him, letting his warmth seep into Mark’s warmth as all the voices filling the room turn into white noise. He’s so tired. His back hurts from sleeping on the floor and Jeno snores and helping with the conference was a mess and he just missed Mark.

The next thing he knows, Mark is shaking him and telling him to wake up, “Come on Hyuck, we’re going home,” and when he opens his eyes they’re already in Youngho’s car.

He groans - “Oh, no, not this again,” - and Youngho laughs and brakes suddenly just to be funny. “I will fucking throw up in your car, Youngho!”

“Hush, we’re almost there.” Mark says, next to him.

“Are we going home? Like, our apartment?”

Mark freezes and it’s Youngho who asks, “Unless you want me to take you to your friend’s apartment.”

The idea is tempting, but Donghyuck is sure Jaemin would kick him out and tell him to go home and talk to Mark. Mark, who’s looking at Donghyuck as if he’s afraid he’ll disappear in a wisp of smoke, half-terrified and half-angry, and his arm around Donghyuck’s back stiffens, his hold tightening imperceptibly so - so controlled, so patient, ready to let Donghyuck go if he asks. Donghyuck doesn’t want to hurt Mark Lee.

“No, let’s go home,” he says.

If he’s going to be rejected, he’s going to do it properly. By confessing first.

☾

The flat is a mess, Donghyuck realizes as soon as he steps back into their shared flat. It’s, for once, a nice thought to have, if only because it distracts him from Mark’s presence, way too close and way too overbearing in the cramped living room.

“You didn’t exactly look after the house in my absence,” he murmurs, picking up an empty blood tumbler from their coffee table and holding it in front of Mark’s face.

Mark has the decency to look somewhat guilty about it. “I must admit, a good eighty percent of the mess around here is out of pettiness.” Donghyuck has to raise a questioning eyebrow for Mark to confess, sheepishly, “I was a little bit angry with you.”

And they’re back to the starting point, to the questions Donghyuck doesn’t want to answer and the ones he doesn’t want to ask.

“Why did you run away?” Mark asks. He’s looking at Donghyuck like there’s something that doesn’t add up in him, like he’s a complicated, long equation and Mark can’t solve it because he made a mistake, somewhere, in the middle of the calculations, or at the beginning, or at the end, and he can’t fathom where and the numbers don’t add up to the solution and it’s driving him crazy. And Donghyuck can’t say for sure if it was Mark who made a mistake or if Donghyuck himself has always been _wrong_ for falling for his roommate even if he knew it was hopeless. Did he start liking Mark just because he was cute and available? Was he that affection starved to fall for the smallest acts of kindness?

“Because I’m greedy,” Donghyuck says, looking at the clock hanging on the wall. It’s a little past five in the morning. Maybe, if he drags him for a little longer, dawn will come before he confesses. Maybe he will be able to run away again. A single look at Mark’s tells him it’s not going to happen. Mark won’t let him run away this time.

“I’m greedy and shallow, and jealous. And petty. And I’m a coward. And I really, _really_ I like you,” he says, and despite all the bravado and the fake confidence he put in his relationship with Mark, the last words come out weak and tiny, as if ashamed of the way they sound out loud in the silence of the house.

“I know.”

And this is the moment Donghyuck should turn back and runs away again, and look for another flat, and maybe for another university in another country, because there’s nothing worse than the genuine concern in Mark’s voice, nothing can hurt him more than Mark’s pity at this point, but Mark is standing right in front of him and there’s nowhere to run.

“I mean, it was kinda obvious. You’re really... transparent.”

And why, why does Mark have to be so... so blunt? Why can’t he ever make things easy? He knows, of course he knows. Isn’t it obvious, at this point? But why does he have to make that sad, frustrated face, why does he bite his lips, why is he nice, why is he handsome, why can’t he just crush Donghyuck like he deserves, why...

“For what it’s worth, I like you too.”

He looks so gloomy about it that Donghyuck would gladly hit him, if it had any effect. What he does, instead, is snort.

“No, I don’t think you do,” he says, because what’s the point of confessing and getting rejected in order to get over his crush if his crush can’t even reject him properly.

“I don’t think that’s for you to decide,” Mark says, a stubborn light in his eyes, and Donghyuck throws the empty tumbler at him. It hits him in the shoulder and falls on the ground between them, and Mark makes this tired, hopeless face that makes Donghyuck want to punch him in the spleen. He does it, not because it could hurt Mark, but because it makes him feel better, even if his own hand hurts afterwards.

“Then what’s the point? Because you’ve refused me in any way possible. If you liked me and you knew I liked you, why didn’t you tell me? Why did you set rules to keep me away, why did you refuse to drink my blood? Why did you say I’m your _friend_?” he asks, and he hits Mark’s chest with every question, until Mark catches it at the last one.

“So that’s _why_ you started avoiding me!”

“Yes! Yes, that’s why! I don’t want you to see me as a friend! I want to kiss you, you dumb stupid bloodsucker idiot! That’s what I want!”

Donghyuck wants... many things. He wants Mark and his fluffy sweaters and the way he looks hungry-sharp at sunset and tired-soft at sunrise. He wants Mark’s soft concentration, the way he rubs his eyes behind the round sunglasses he wears in the last hours before it’s morning, when the sky starts to clear and his eyes hurt, but he’s helping Donghyuck review for his exams and he can’t go to sleep, not yet. He wants the apologetic scrunch of Mark’s nose when he burns something. He wants Mark to hold his hand and stroke his hair and ask him what’s wrong, and he already has this, he has all of this, but he wants...

“I’m greedy, I told you. Because we’re already friends and you’re an amazing friend, but I want more. And I’m shallow because your kindness isn’t enough, I want... I want everything else. And I’m jealous because I want you to like only me even though you’re friends with a bunch of handsome people and you get awesome girls to offer you their neck. And you keep pushing me away and I don’t know what to do with,” he flails, he’s losing control, “all of this. I don’t want to lose this friendship but it’s not enough for me and I don’t know what to do.”

“Donghyuck. Lee Donghyuck.”

“What?”

His voice is cracking, he realizes, and he’s panting, and Mark looks like not even a storm could make him falter now. It’s funny, because Mark has always been the floundering, stuttering one between the two of them, and Donghyuck has always been sure of himself and flirty, and now he is a mess and Mark’s gaze is unwavering, his voice calm and clear, his hands still faintly warm as they cup Donghyuck’s face to keep him from looking away, the shadow of his lashes curved around his cheeks long and sweet.

“You are possibly the most dense person I’ve ever met,” he says, “if you’ve failed to notice I’ve been hopelessly crushing on you since the day you set foot inside this house and tripped on the umbrella stand. I spent the last three months trying to understand if you were flirting with me - if you really meant to flirt with me or if you’re just that clingy to everyone - while in the meanwhile you got drunk and kissed random stupid TAs every three nights. Yes, Hyuck, I called you a friend because that’s what I thought we were, and no, Hyuck, you’re not allowed to offer me your blood because you’re not my boyfriend. That doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be, but you can’t ask me to bite you unless you are. And we could’ve had this conversation days ago if you had been honest instead of running away.”

This is... possibly the most Mark has ever talked since Donghyuck met him. It’s also a lot to take in. Donghyuck might be a little torn between smiling, crying and reminding Mark he hasn’t confessed first either, so half of the fault is technically his. He would also ask Mark to say he likes him again, because that fucking sounded really good.

The only thing he does, though, is to feel lost, because never in his wildest dreams he expected this outcome, and Mark is still holding his face, sweet and tender and resolute.

“Now, what?” Donghyuck asks, as a bubble of happiness swells in his chest, in those few seconds before it bursts and reaches his brain too.

“Now,” Mark says, and now, only now, his voice shakes, “you should probably kiss me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, you can find me @ aprilclaws on twitter! Come and say hi!


	8. interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -unbetaed and proud.  
> -the real chapter is wip i promise, but i wanted to show a little more from mark's side  
> -also i love you all? really. thank you for all the support ;; you're all the best! i'll reply all the comments asap!

“And the way he smiles. Did I tell you about the way he smiles?”

“About six hundred times,” Yuta provides happily from the swivel chair on the other side of the room, but Hyuna shushes him and gives Mark her wrist and Mark sinks his fangs into it. It’s easy, like sliding butter with a sharp knife, and the blood is warm and thick and heady, almost sour on his tongue. Donghyuck’s blood would be sweet on his lips.

Mark drinks and drinks and drowns the memory of Donghyuck’s scent in Hyuna’s. He can’t drown the way Donghyuck looked a few days ago, pinned against their tacky fridge, his pulse quick and inviting, his eyes big and his lips red and slick and...

He slips his fangs off Hyuna’s wrist and licks his own lips - it’s not sweet, not like Donghyuck’s blood would be, if the scent is anything to go by - before he pouts. 

“He offered me to drink his blood,” he says, in a whisper. He feels full and heavy and lightheaded at the same, and stupid, like there’s something he’s missing. Mark doesn’t like to miss things. Mark likes to feel in control, all the times. But Donghyuck... Donhyuck always does things that are out of Mark’s control, like offering him his blood. Like kissing his cheek. Like smiling, fuck, like running away for weeks. He offered Mark to drink his blood and Mark refused and Donghyuck ran away. It hurts.

“Why didn’t you just accept?” Hyuna asks, and there’s an undertone of disbelief in her voice.

“Why would I?” he mutters back, rubbing his eyes. He’s so thirsty everything hurts. He’s been drinking - he drank from Gowon earlier and from Hyuna now, and he knows Yuta has at least a dozen girls at his beck and call, that’s why he’s here, but it doesn’t matter how many girls he drinks from because he still feels so thirsty and he misses Donghyuck.

“I thought that was something you wanted,” Hyuna is still saying. She turns towards Yuta. “Isn’t that something you want? To drink the blood of the people you like?”

Yuta shrugs. “I don’t know. I only like vampires. The sex is so much better. Humans are weaklings.”

Mark shakes his head. They don’t understand. None of them does.

“I can’t do that to him. Drinking his blood, I mean. He’s... special. He’s not like you,” he says, slowly, and Hyuna whistles.

“Be careful there, tiger, you’re making it sound like there’s something wrong with me.”

“Yeah, kid, stop being so judgmental,” Yuta chimes in.

Mark pouts. “Can I have more blood?” he asks. “Please?” His head hurts.

Hyuna shakes her head. “Tell me more about your crush first, and then I’ll think about it.”

Cruel, cruel woman, playing with his feelings. Donghyuck plays with Mark’s feelings too. “He’s always around, you know? He makes sure I drink my blood and he asks how my nights went and he makes horrible vampire puns, but also...”

He lowers his voice and bites his lips, and Hyuna shuffles closer to hear him better.

“He’s always so fucking close. I could reach out and touch him and I can’t, I shouldn’t. He’s not... He’s not mine to touch, you know? But it’s like he’s offering. It’s like he’s taunting me. Oh, look at me, my blood is delicious, by the way Mark do you want to have a bite? And then he goes and gets drunk and kisses other guys and... I don’t know.”

He’s whining. His head feels too heavy, so he dumps it on the table and doesn’t even feel it beyond the dull  _thump_.

“Well,” Yoona says, drawing her wrist back and frowning, “if he doesn’t have a boyfriend I’m glad he’s going out and kissing people and living his life. Since you’re too much of a coward to make a move on him.”

“I am making a move on him! I’m like... courting him!”

Well, that’s a lie. Mark is not exactly courting Donghyuck. More like Mark is failing at keeping his hands off Donghyuck. He really tried, in the beginning, to be a good roommate, a good friend, one that could just take care of the bright hot kid who suddenly appeared at his doorstep six months ago, one that could sit down with him and watch TV until three in the morning and bid him goodnight and not agonize on the warmth tingling on his skin where Donghyuck had hugged him before going to bed. Mark tried hard. He failed just as hard.

Hyuna shakes her head, crosses her legs and clicks her tongue. 

“Are you, though? Because to me it just seems that you have this boy, hot stuff, you’re head over heels for him, and he’s literally throwing himself at you every time he can, okay? Are you still following me?” Her lips smack together with a sticky sound that echo in Mark’s confused mind. Her wrist is still bleeding and he can smell it acutely. He wants that blood. He’s also so full he might throw up. If Renjun was here, he’d laugh at him. Hyuna is still talking and he struggle to focus. “So, he’s dancing naked in front of you and kissing your cheek and calling you  _hyung_ , you said that six times, and smiling at you, and you’re just rejecting him, utterly crushing his hopes to bang you. I would go out and kiss another guy too, you silly boy.”

It makes sense, but at the same time it doesn’t.

“What if he’s just handsy? What if he doesn’t mean it?” he asks, to himself.

“How can you know if you don’t ask him?”

It’s not Hyuna’s voice. Oh. Mark really must have drunk a lot, if he didn’t even hear Youngho enter.

“You were extra silent,” he says, and it feels dumb to his own ears too. Youngho frowns.

“Or you’re just wasted. How much did you let him drink?” he asks, to both Hyuna and Yuta. He doesn’t sound happy.

Hyuna draws back, taking her bloody wrist with her, away from Mark. “Oh, come on,” she chirps, “I just wanted to know about this wonder boy of his. He talked about him with everyone but me.”

Yuta simply leans back against the seat, unaffected by Youngho’s bad mood. “Well, I’ve already heard the ode to Donghyuck six times, but it’s always endearing. He gets so cute when he’s drunk.”

“Hyuuung,” Mark whines. “Hyung, why am I always thirsty? I’ve drunk so much I could throw up, but I’m still thirsty.”

He pulls on Youngho’s sleeve and Youngho pulls back until he lets go.

“It’s because you’re an idiot who refused the only thing that could’ve made you feel better and a coward who can’t even look in the eyes of the boy he likes before going into gay panic. You’re also lovesick.”

Well, thank you Youngho. Thanks for nothing.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Donghyuck likes you back.”

“I know that,” Mark mutters, and Youngho pinches his arm.

“Then why are you here whining like a baby? Why aren’t you doing something about it?”

Well, the reasons are many and quite diverse.

First, Mark is terrified of Donghyuck getting tired of him and leaving him alone to an eternity of pain and heartbreak.

Second, Mark is terrified of Donghyuck being scared of him and leaving him alone to an eternity of pain and heartbreak. 

He feels like both reasons would make Youngho pinch him again, so in the end he goes with the third option.

“I’ve never kissed anyone and I’m terrified he’ll think I’m a loser and he’ll leave me alone to an eternity of pain and heartbreak.”

Youngho pinches him. Hard.

“Okay, okay. I want to talk to him, I swear. But he disappeared! He hasn’t come home since...” He lets his words trail over, slowly. When was the last time they talked? What did he say? He must have said something that hurt Donghyuck, but he really doesn’t know what.

He doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He never had a girlfriend or a boyfriend when he was human. He never even thought he would need one as a vampire. Shit just happened. Donghyuck happened.

Youngho sighs.

“You’re a mess. Clean up, come on. I’m taking you home.”

“It’s not home without Donghyuck,” he whines, and he barely hears Yuta guffaw from the other side of the room and Youngho threaten him of a slow and painful death because he’s not helping.

Hyuna clears her throat as they leave. She pulls on Mark’s sleeve and he looks at her, blurry and hazy, a ghost of red hair and red lips. (Red wrists.)

“Make sure to tell him, when you see him again. Don’t let him run away. Be honest. Be clear. Next time, introduce him to me, okay?”

Oh, Mark will. Be honest. Be clear. He just hopes it’s enough. He hopes Donghyuck is going to do the same for him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might have noticed that the final chapter count is now a ?  
> The reason is that we're really close to the end, but I want to post another interlude from Mark before the last chapter and I don't even know if the last chapter will be too long (in which case it could be split into two chapters) and I don't want everyone to think that the next chapter is going to be the last because that would put unnecessary pressure on me.  
> I don't want the end to be too cheesy or cliché, I want it to feel right, and I don't know how long it will take to make me (and I hope everyone who's following this fic) happy. Please be patient ~  
> Thank you again for all the support and love you've given me ♥


	9. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote exactly four version and a half of the kissing part before settling with what i published in the end. be warned bc it's gonna be messy, like all the things i dwell too much over c:  
> also @ silvia, i know you liked all the other versions i wrote, especially the rowdy one, but please forgive me, i wrote them too vanilla for sexy kisses ;u; ~~maybe in the future?~~ <3  
> heads up, next one should be the epilogue, unless i decide to stick another mark interlude in the middle!

The kiss is sweet and a little awkward. It’s chaste, also, but Donghyuck doesn’t really care. There’ll be other kisses, better kisses, and there’ll be time for Mark to learn, to improve (both things he takes a great delight into).

This, though, this could be his first kiss. It probably is. 

Donghyuck never thought to ask Mark what he did before, if he had someone else, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a crush, a first date. A first kiss. He doesn’t know if he’s ready for the responsibility to be Mark’s first everything, mostly because, for many things, Mark will be his first as well.

It’s confusing and a little scary, to be the only one who knows what to do and still having no idea of what to do, but Donghyuck wants to allow himself to be brave, this time. He wants to allow himself to be hopeful. To believe they’re going to figure it out, somehow.

The kiss doesn’t last long enough to turn into more than fumbling, hesitant liplocking. Mark breaks it off first, and looks at Donghyuck with impossibly huge eyes. He’s still flushed and rosy from all the blood he must have drunk at dinner, though the warmth of his skin is subsiding slowly. He glances at Donghyuck’s throat, and then to his chest, where, Donghyuck is aware, is heart is beating furiously. He almost blushes, but there’s not nearly enough blood in him to do that.

“That was... something,” he says, stutters.

That was something indeed, something tiny and small and seemingly anticlimactic, and at the same time big enough to make Mark Lee looks flustered, like he just made the greatest discovery of his life. Donghyuck doesn’t know how he himself looks, but he feels… spin dried. Squeezed and flipped all over and drowned and resurfaced. Maybe, instead of breaking Mark, he was the one who was broken and now he needs to pick up the pieces and pulls himself together again.

For a moment they’re silent, the air between them heavy and thick, like they’re drowning in sticky cotton candy, drunk on sugar and unable to breathe. 

“How was it?” Donghyuck asks, before he can stop himself. There’s a sudden drop of worry in his body, at the height of his diaphragm and falling down, lower, tiny and heavy, curling in his stomach like anxious moths. He doesn’t know where it’s coming from, this sudden fear that Mark – his Mark, solid and familiar and always there for Donghyuck – is going to turn into a stranger in front of his eyes. It’s such a stupid thing to believe, that one moment is enough to change everything, that there can be a Mark of _before_ and Mark of _after_ the kiss and that they’re going to be completely different people, that the Mark of after the kiss is someone Donghyuck doesn’t know yet and that, unlike the other Mark, he will try to hurt Donghyuck’s feelings. It’s stupid, and yet Donghyuck believes it anyway, his heart building castles of quicksand and doubt in the span of a heartbeat.

But then Mark blinks, once, twice, confused, and he croaks out a “What?”, his voice cracking like it probably last did when he was a teenager, his eyes flickering towards Donghyuck’s lips again. He licks his own, absentmindedly and Donghyuck thinks something cheesy like _is he tasting me on his lips_ and he blushes from the sheer cheesiness of it, from the stupid first-kiss-in-a-romance-novel atmosphere and Mark’s eyes are on him again, and… And this is still Mark, the Mark Donghyuck knows, the awkward nerd, the handsome loser, the person Donghyuck fell in love with. He’s no young adult brooding main character. And this is still Donghyuck, who’s certainly not his heroine in distress. And this situation is so stupid Donghyuck finds himself repressing the hysterical giggle bubbling in his throat.

“This is so embarrassing,” he murmurs instead. He covers his face with his hand, feeling himself burn in his own skin, under Mark’s eyes. This time, they’re both being lame. “Stop staring, you freak.”

“It was... It was good,” Mark says, eyes still wide and confused, and Donghyuck blinks, realizing it’s the answer to his previous question.

“You don’t seem convinced,” Donghyuck mutters, and Mark makes the most mortified face.

“I don’t know what to say! I’ve never kissed anybody... I don’t have any term of comparison...”

“Maybe we should do it again,” Donghyuck suggests, a little hopeful. Mark does look a little tempted, but he takes a look at Donghyuck, frowns and puts a finger on Donghyuck’s lips to stop him.

“Maybe we should calm down, first,” he says, ever the good boy. “Get your heart rate to a normal level again.”

“Spoilsport.”

“I heard that. But... like...” He hesitates. “Was it good, for you?”

“Dude. It was...” Donghyuck tries to find some words that can summarize the fact that he’s been wanting to kiss Mark Lee for the past six months, maybe more. He fails. He flails.

Mark sighs at his lack of coherent reaction and links their fingers together – slow, purposefully – and Donghyuck squeezes them and lets the frantic thrumming of his heart slow down.

*

The point is, Donghyuck spent so much time focusing on the fact that Mark was – sometimes lowkey a loser but most of the times highkey a cool vampire, too nice for Donghyuck, definitely too nice for Donghyuck, super cute – _unattainable_ to think about what they could do in the remote case Mark reciprocated his feelings and they really got together. Which brings them where they are now, camping on the couch in the middle of the living room, holding hands.

Holding Mark’s hand is strange, good strange yes, but also a little cringe strange. It’s one of these things Donghyuck has always wanted to do, one of those things he’s always tried to do, only to be met with Mark’s stubborn, whiny protests. This time, though, this time Mark started it, and it feels like a peace offering. It feels like, well, maybe like a compromise. No more kisses but you can hold my hand. Donghyuck is not complaining. Donghyuck is not letting go.

“Are vampires ticklish?” he asks, rubbing the underside of Mark’s wrists, where, if he was alive, the vein would be pumping blood back to his heart.

“I actually have no idea,” Mark says. “I don’t even remember if I was ticklish as a human, but I’m certainly not as a vampire.”

Donghyuck hums, checking the way his fingers look against Mark’s pale skin. He wiggles on the couch until he can comfortably rest his head on Mark’s shoulder without getting a crick on his neck the way they’ve done countless times while playing games or watching TV together, except now they’re together _together_. For real. It’s for real, right?

“So, are we together?” Donghyuck asks, finally finding the courage to ask the question that has been burning at the top of his tongue since the kiss. 

It’s late to initiate this conversation. The sky is already starting to pale and Mark will soon have to go to sleep. Donghyuck will sleep too, because he’s so tired his head spinning and running in circles and short-circuiting, every once in a while, forcing him to blink to fight exhaustion. Only the adrenaline and the feeling of Mark’s fingers intertwined with his own have kept him awake until now.

Mark squeezes Donghyuck’s hand apprehensively and glares at the window, where the sun is starting to bother him, but he makes no way to move, not yet.

“We shouldn’t,” he says, finally acknowledging Donghyuck’s question. “If you were smart, you’d run away from me as fast as you can.”

Oh, but Donghyuck doesn’t want to run anymore. He’s been running away from Mark for a while now and he’s too tired to go on. The funny thing is, Mark was never really trying to chase him. Even now, he’s leaving the door open for Donghyuck to leap outside and never come back. If you were smart, he said, but since when was Donghyuck the smart one?

“But you want me to stay.”

It’s not a question, but Mark answers anyway.

“I want you to stay, even if I shouldn’t.”

“And why shouldn’t you?” Mark looks up, surprised, but Donghyuck doesn’t look away, for once, because if they’re doing this, he wants them to do it right. He doesn’t want Mark to go out with him while thinking it’s wrong. He doesn’t want Mark to feel guilty, or this relationship is already bound to sink, together with their friendship.

Mark sighs, letting go of Donghyuck’s hand to fold his arms against his chest.

“It won’t be easy, you know? I… I’m a vampire, Hyuck, not… not a boyfriend.”

“Can’t you be both?”

Mark frowns and looks down. “I… don’t know how to. I’m very young, in vampire terms. I’m afraid I’ll lose control. I won’t be able to kiss you for more than five minutes before your blood starts smelling way too tasty. I can’t take you to dates outside during the day and our schedules will clash forever and people will think you’re a nutcase for wanting… wanting this.” He shrugs, trying to play it cool, but he tenses under Donghyuck.

“I have considered all of these things in the past few months I spent pining for you. I still like you.”

“It’s not only that. I mean, there are logistic problems and we’ll probably have to talk about it and set up rules but…” Mark steals a glance at him. He looks… embarrassed. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, you know? Or a girlfriend. And I’ve never kissed anyone.”

“Is that what was worrying you? Are you getting performance anxiety?”

Donghyuck’s weak attempt at humor crashes against Mark’s deep sigh.

“I want you to understand. I’ve never... liked someone. I’ve never even thought I would like someone, some day. I thought, I don’t know, I never felt anything like this before being Turned either, so I just thought it would never happen. I’ve never wanted to share my silence, my time, or my space with someone. I’m not used to share myself, period.” He looks down, frustrated. “I don’t know what to do with you. I’m afraid I’ll fuck up.”

So even Mark Lee is afraid he’ll fuck up. It’s nice, not to be alone.

“I’ve never had anyone before either,” Donghyuck says. He catches Mark’s surprised expression. “I had people I liked, but I’ve never been in a relationship. And one would think that with all the daydreaming I did I should know what to do with you now, but the truth is I don’t either.”

Mark thinks about it. “Are we already breaking up then?” and smiles when Donghyuck glares at him.

“It was a joke.”

“You suck at jokes,” Donghyuck mutters, and Mark’s smile widens.

“Technically I only suck blood.”

Oh, but Mark is so lame, looking sheepish and embarrassed and fucking happy under his skin, and Donghyuck finds himself smiling too. He likes this Mark the best. This Mark, who doesn’t know what to do and who could learn everything with Donghyuck for the first time. Together.

“I’m afraid too,” he says under his voice, like he’s talking about a real big secret, like he’s not permitted to talk about this, that the minute the world catches a whiff of it it’ll make anything to ruin this for him.

He’s afraid one day Mark will see how boring and normal and human Donghyuck is, low and shallow and petty, jealous and terribly scared of confrontations, and unable to do anything on his own. He leans too much on others – on Jaemin, Jeno, Mark himself. He’s constantly afraid that, someday, they’ll decide he’s not worth the effort anymore. In this sense, people like Ha Minhyuk are easier. It doesn’t hurt too much, when they walk away. 

“If you don’t want to do this, _hyung_ , if you’re not ready, you have to tell me. And I’ll leave. Because I’ve always thought your friendship would be enough, but if I stay I’ll never be able to get over you.”

He licks his lips and swallows nervously, waiting for Mark’s answer, when he suddenly realizes how late it really is. Only a few minutes before dawn. Oh shit.

“You should go to sleep, before it gets too bright,” he says, jumping up to his feet and startling Mark, who also steals a look outside.

“Yeah,” Mark answers, tiredly. “Maybe I should.”

Donghyuck walks with him to his room. He doesn’t ask to get in, like he’s always done in the past just to embarrass Mark. It’s too late for games and he doesn’t really want Mark to get all defensive and panicked. Besides, he’s still waiting for his answer, even if at this point they’ll probably have to talk about this again tomorrow.

He shuffles on the spot, “So well, goodnight?”

His voice breaks a little. Awkward, super awkward. And Mark waves, even more awkward than him, his pretty hand frozen mid-air when he realizes how silly he is. He really looks like he wants to stay more, like there are things he wants to tell Donghyuck, but it’s late, really late. The sun is rising.

“Goodnight, Hyuck,” he says, softly.

Donghyuck watches him fiddle with the door handle for a moment before he turns back to go to his own room, squeezing his eyes shut. He hopes, he really hopes, tomorrow they’ll both manage to be more natural around each other, because if he has to take another two minutes of this tension he’ll break miserably and…

He barely touches the handle of his own door before he feels the faintest pressure on his cheek, a featherlight kiss.

“I think it’s too late for me to get over you,” Mark says, right into his ear, “and I don’t think I want you to get over me.”

When Donghyuck manages to get past the mental breakdown Mark’s word caused, Mark has already scampered inside his room as the first light of the day start trickling inside the room through the small fissures in the blinds.

“Goodnight, Hyuckie,” he says, closing the door before Donghyuck can say anything, still frozen in surprise, his cheeks so hot it feels like he’s burning. He finds himself standing at the end of the corridor, one hand still closed around the handle while the other goes to his cheek, where Mark has kissed him goodnight.

Well, goodfuckingnight. How is he supposed to sleep, now, he thinks as he flops on the bed, his body wired with so much energy he could scream.

He grabs his phone and texts Jeno and Jaemin.

_You’ll never believe what happened tonight._


	10. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for not replying to the comments but it was either replying or updating tonight and i guess you all wanted the update since it's been forever ;; but i read everything so please keep commenting and supporting me, you're the only reason this chapter happened ;;
> 
> also thank you for understanding my situation. it's really difficult for me to write right now and you've all been patient and wonderful with me, so this chapter is for you. i really hope you like it ♥

Donghyuck wakes up with a pounding head, a pounding heart and the pounding of the radio alarm, low basses shaking the static silence of the room. He absent-mindedly picks at the dried drool at the corner of his mouth, feeling pillow creases on his left cheek. His phone is stranded between the bed and the wall, on the verge of dying. Something is poking at the edge of his conscience and it’s only while he’s in the bathroom, trying to wash his face and brush his teeth at the same time, that it dawns on him that yesterday night Mark confessed to him. He slips on the wet tiles, crashes his knee against the plexiglass of the shower with a crack that probably woke up even Mark from his eternal daylight sleep and pokes himself in the eye with the toothbrush. Okay, they both confessed, but still, wow.

The day doesn’t really get any less hectic. Donghyuck leaves the house wearing one white and one baby blue sock because he didn’t have time to pair either of them and, in his haste to make it to class in time, he forgets his charger. In Lab II, he mostly works on ignoring Ha Minhyuk’s curious gaze on him, with all its unspoken questions about vampires and his roommate and if Donghyuck is dating him. _Yes, he is_ , and Donghyuck himself can’t believe that what happened last night is real. The memory of that awkward, stilted kiss pales under the light of the day, like a starfish drying and shrinking outside of the sea, curling on itself and waiting for the end to come. Donghyuck wants to catch it and put it back into the water, so that it survives forever. He wants to lay it down under a microscope and dissect it, sever it in pieces so tiny that he’ll finally start to understand them, just a little, and then suture them all together again. He does nothing of the sort. He merely lets out a tight, fake smile when he catches Minhyuk’s eyes and ignores all of Jaemin’s jokes about Donghyuck’s newfound love for bats, mosquitoes and leeches.

“You’re the only leech I know, Nana,” he says, through gritted teeth.

Jaemin’s laugh is obnoxious and ominous, laced with the threat that he’s going to bother Donghyuck until he’ll tell him _exactly_ what happened yesterday night. As if Donghyuck knows. As if he fucking knows.

Donghyuck’s heart beats erratically inside his chest, a frenzied, out of control drum. Nervous energy simmers under his skin, making his face feel warm, almost feverish, and his hands slide helplessly on the slick, cold instruments, unusually clammy. His mood darkens just like the sky outside the laboratory, blooming purple and deep blue as the evening approaches. He wishes his phone was working so he could see if Mark has texted him. He wishes he could skip the class and just go home. He wishes he could be there when Mark wakes up. He, stupidly and romantically and damn hopelessly, wishes to be the first thing Mark will see tonight, so that if his dumb roommate is harboring any kind of regret for what happened yesterday, seeing Donghyuck will chase them away. (Truth to be told, some part of him still believes this is some kind of mistake, that Mark was under the influence of _something_ – maybe that girl’s blood was too sweet, maybe she had drunk a little before letting him bite her, maybe Mark will wake up and remember it’s all going to be a giant mistake and…)

A tap to his shoulder shakes Donghyuck out of his self-deprecating reverie. He almost bumps into Siyeon but she doesn’t even notice, too busy stretching after the long hours of laboratory. Donghyuck stops walking to send a questioning look at Jaemin.

“Someone is here for you.”

Donghyuck looks up and follows Jaemin’s eyes towards the university gate, heart swelling in fear and hope at the thought of Mark coming to pick him up. He’s severely disappointed.

It is not Mark waiting for him at the beginning of the shopping street, under the yellow bright sign of the campus coffee shop. It’s Youngho, and he looks tall, handsome and unattainable. Painfully, unmistakably vampire. He waves when he catches Donghyuck’s gaze and Donghyuck waves back, uncharacteristically shy. 

Hyeyeon catches the exchange and chokes on her coffee. That attracts Siyeon’s attention too and the two girls gape as Youngho smiles in a flash of fangs.

“Wait, is that your vampire roommate?” Siyeon asks, and Donghyuck shrugs, still trying to hide his disappointment at the lack of a cute boyfriend waiting for him.

“No, he’s one of his friends.”

“Well, he’s fucking hot.”

Youngho doesn’t smirk, but Donghyuck is familiar enough with his antics to recognize the amusement in his eyes. Of course, he can hear everything they’re saying.

“Say,” continue Siyeon, “would you mind introducing him to...”

“No.”

“But…”

“Okay my girls, time to go!” Jaemin claps on Siyeon’s shoulder, maybe a little stronger than needed, but at least she stops gaping at Youngho to glare at him.

“Guess you won’t be coming for drinks with us then… I will have to entertain the ladies by myself,” Jaemin whispers, and Donghyuck looks at Youngho, who slightly shakes his head. Guess he won’t.

He waves to the girls. “I’ll see you next week!” Then he shoots a quick, “Text me when you get home,” to Jaemin, to which Jaemin replies, “No, _you_ text me... Be safe, Hyuck!”

He doesn’t sound too worried, he trusts Mark and his friends by proxy too much to think they’d hurt Donghyuck, but he still sends a long, intense glance at Youngho before he leads them towards their favorite drinking place. Hyeyeon and Siyeon steal a last wistful glance at Youngho and he winks, making them squeal in delight as they follow Jaemin down the street.

“Stop seducing my lab partners,” Donghyuck mutters, swatting the arm Youngho wings around his shoulder away. Youngho just puts it there again.

“They’re cute and they’re available. I never say no to consensual food, unlike someone else.”

Donghyuck receives the jab with more dignity he thought he had.

“That’s because Mark is a gentlevampire. You’re a hoe.”

“No that’s because he’s a prude. But yes, I’m a hoe. A proud one. There’s absolutely no shame in accepting our nature. Just because your boyfriend is a repressed little…”

Donghyuck can’t help the small sound of surprise he lets out when Youngho calls Mark his boyfriend. It’s real. It’s really real. Youngho’s smile widens and softens, barely tainted by a little smugness.

“I know you’re happy but don’t piss your pants now. Let’s find something to eat first.”

Donghyuck refrains from asking if the plan includes Youngho’s meal as well as they walk down the street, from one pop song to another, until they in front of a very expensive looking shabu shabu place.

Donghyuck frowns. “You know I cannot afford this?” He says slowly. “Anything else would be fine.”

“Are you kidding? I’m paying, of course.”

There’s no need, tries to say Donghyuck, but Youngho is already dragging him upstairs and ordering for two even though he’s not going to eat anything. Something smells fishy. Youngho has always been nice to Donghyuck, but never to the point of treating him to expensive meat.

“Why are you here?” Donghyuck asks. Then, right after, “Wait, does Mark knows you’re here?”

Youngho smirks, all handsome and evil, and the woman approaching their table with a bowl of broth stops midway to stare. Donghyuck doesn’t blame her. Youngho has a lot of teeth and they’re all very sharp.

“Eat,” Youngho says, after the clerk has set the food on the table, then frowns when he sees Donghyuck picking at the food idly. “You need to eat a lot, you know? Humans are weaklings. They die without nutrition.”

Donghyuck snorts. Sure, now he’s going to let someone who has been dead for two hundred years teach him about human survival.

“So, you and Mark.”

Donghyuck plucks a tiny slice of meat from the plate and drops it in the boiling broth, watches it curl and change its color and sink towards the bottom of the bowl. He smiles. He doesn’t want to, but he can’t help it. When he looks up, Youngho is smiling down at him too.

“He already told you?” Donghyuck asks, his voice low and soft and fond.

Youngho beams. “He messaged us yesterday night, but we were all already sleeping. It was damn time, you know? Everyone was ready to tear him to pieces if he didn’t man up and confess. He let us suffer for too long.”

He let Donghyuck suffer for too long. And himself too.

“He sounded really happy though. Happier than I’ve ever heard him sound in the last decade probably. You did that.”

Youngho keeps adding meat to the bowl as he talks, and he picks at Donghyuck’s hands with the chopsticks when he sees he’s not chewing. “He’s never gonna let himself bite you if you keep looking this skinny, you know? You need to build your reserves of iron for that. Eat, kid, come on!”

Donghyuck blushes. He feels a little like he’s discussing his sexual life with his father-in-law. Or brother-in-law. Or coven-member-in-law, he doesn’t know.

“Mark said he wants to take it slow,” he mutters. “And I don’t want to push him. I’m already glad he wants to try this out with me. It seemed like he’s struggled a lot about this.”

“Oh, Hyuck, you don’t know half of it.” Youngho sighs, his voice dropping a little low, so that only Donghyuck can hear in the ruckus of the restaurant. “I know he’s like, all strong and cold and immortal, but he’s really sensitive, so go easy on him, ok?”

“Is that why you came here? To give me the speech? Break his heart and I’ll break your legs?”

The worst part is that Youngho can break his legs, and very easily also, but the vampire surprises Donghyuck by letting out a laugh so loud and melodious in contrast with his previous tone that everyone in the restaurant turns towards them. Donghyuck can feel the eyes of the other patrons on his neck, and he knows what they must be thinking. A vampire taking a human out for dinner. A vampire and his dinner. He flushes scarlet, scowls at no one in particular and swallows another piece of meat, waiting for Youngho to stop laughing.

“I believe,” Youngho says, his eyes still shining with amusement, “that Mark is old enough not to need my protection. Besides, that’s the kind of speech Mark is receiving now from Taeyong.”

“Taeyong?” Donghyuck leans over. “Why did he go to Taeyong instead of coming here?” He can’t help but pout. _He should be the one paying for my dinner, not you! People should be thinking he’s the vampire who seduced me, not you!_

“You know Mark, he likes to stick to the rules, and a vampire is supposed to report to the leader of his coven when he or she starts courting a human. We don’t really care, but Mark does, so Yongie is indulging him. You have his blessing, by the way. Even if you’re a little pest.”

“I do?”

“Everyone likes you! You make Mark so flustered, it’s adorable! He was so boring without you…”

Donghyuck finds himself smiling. Mark is, indeed, adorable, and he likes Donghyuck back! He even went to ask for his coven’s approval because he wants to date Donghyuck, and his coven said yes, and the world is an amazing place, and…

“Wait, you said rules? There are rules about dating a human?”

Youngho’s eyes narrow and his smirk grows sharper. “There are some… conventions. Very outdated, old school romance. Almost no one follows them.”

Old school romance. It doesn’t really sound like Mark, but at the same time it does.

“How come I’ve never heard of anything like this?” Donghyuck mutters, his dinner forgotten as he browses the internet because he has a feeling Youngho would just tease him and not actually tell him anything.

“Because you’re an ignorant little human, probably.”

Donghyuck ignores the insult and opens the second result on his search list. “List of appropriate gifts from a vampire to a human, etiquette of vampire powers, first date manners…” Something suddenly catches his attention. “The vampire shall wait at least six months before biting their human? Is this legit?”

“I’m afraid it is. Good luck with that bite kink of yours, kid.”

Donghyuck doesn’t even listen, eyes glued to the little words on the screen. “After receiving approval from the coven it is common courtesy for the vampire to take their human to dinner, a symbolic gesture to show they can take care of their partner, bla bla, if the human accepts the invitation the courting can begin…” Donghyuck drops the chopsticks, horrified. “Well, then why are _you_ here with me, and not Mark? He should be the one getting me food!”

Sharper, sharper, the corners of Youngho’s mouth turn upwards, endlessly amused. How could Donghyuck have ever thought that Youngho was a nice vampire? He’s a snake!

“Because after letting us wait six long, tantalizingly slow months before he finally decided to man up and accept his feelings, this is the payback he deserves, I’m taking his cute human out for dinner in his place and there’s nothing he can do to stop me.”

Needless to say, Donghyuck refuses to eat anything more after that.

☾

Donghyuck is scowling and playing Cookie Run on Youngho’s phone when the phone owner comes back from his smoking break. Donghyuck doesn’t even raise his eyes from the phone, and his voice is petulant when he talks.

“You’re an asshole and I still haven’t forgiven you. And I want to go home.”

“Let me take you home then.”

The phone almost slips off his hands. That’s definitely not Youngho’s voice. 

Facing Mark after everything that happened yesterday night is surprisingly easy. He doesn’t look angry or annoyed or conflicted or, like Donghyuck likes to say, emotionally constipated. For once, Donghyuck can see the fondness in his eyes, and he can only wonder how many times Mark has looked at him like this and he didn’t realize.

“Where’s that snake?” he asks, hiding the surge of warmth in his chest behind an annoyed tone.

“Youngho? He left. Not before paying for your dinner.” Mark sighs, extending a hand to get Youngho’s phone back from Donghyuck. “They have a bet going on, at the coven, to see who can steal more of your firsts from me because I’m too slow, apparently.”

“Oh.” Donghyuck’s face falls. “If I had known I wouldn’t have accepted…”

“Relax, Hyuck. It’s just a joke for them. And I’m not angry. I don’t really care who’s paying for your dinner as long as you’re eating properly. Who knows how much junk food you ate at Jaemin’s.”

“Maybe next time you should come and pick me up at school,” Donghyuck suggests.

“Would you like that? Flaunting your vampire boyfriend in front of your friends?”

Donghyuck cares very little about stuff like that, just like he really doesn’t care whether Mark is following the vampire dating rule book or not. He just wants to go on a date with his boyfriend. He’s been wanting that since… Maybe since the first time Mark saw him wasted and whiny and so, so sad, and he held his hand, put him to bed, petted his hair with a gentleness that didn’t match his supernatural strength. Maybe since Mark’s first, epic failure attempt at cooking for Donghyuck, or since that time he brought ice cream at three in the morning to ask for forgiveness after a fight. Mark is good at stuff like that, taking care of people, making them feel cherished. That’s why it was easy, to fall for him.

It’s late when they leave the restaurant. The streets are still bright, but without all the people roaming the streets the atmosphere is eerie, almost alien. This time of the night belongs to the students coming home late from their private classes, to distracted salarymen with hunched shoulders and hushed steps, to old ladies shutting out their food stalls to finally go home after a long day, to couples enjoying their last minutes together before the bus comes and they have to say goodbye. This time of the night belongs to Mark and Donghyuck, walking so close that their pinkies brush against each other as they walk, and when Donghyuck tries to link his fingers with Mark’s he finds out that Mark was just waiting to do the same.

They avoid the bus stop and take the long route home, through the park.

“Youngho told me you went to talk to Taeyong,” Donghyuck says, and Mark laughs his most awkward laugh.

“He did, uh? Sorry about that, I should’ve probably told you I was going to make things official with my coven. I hope this doesn’t make things awkward… Well, more awkward. I swear I wasn’t trying to pressure you, I…”

“Mark.” Donghyuck stops and Mark stops with him. When Donghyuck turns, his boyfriend is shining like melted gold under the streetlight. He looks unreal. Painfully confused, a little scared and really handsome and Donghyuck has to bite his bottom lip to stifle an elated giggle because he’s wanted this for so long and now he has all of it. He holds Mark’s hand tighter and shifts closer to steal the tiniest kiss from Mark’s lips. “Mark, I don’t care if you’re slow or awkward or if you want to take your time or if you’re following some weird vampire dating traditions. Let’s just do this together.”

Donghyuck doesn’t believe in perfect dates and he doesn’t believe in following the rules. No book and no set of rules can teach you the what to say, when to hold someone’s hand, the right moment to go for a kiss. Mark’s adam’s apple twitches when Donghyuck moves closer, and it’s something so simple, so human - knowing he’s afraid, knowing he doesn’t know what to do or when to do it, just that he wants something to happen - that it intimidates Donghyuck. He hesitates, and then he curses himself for hesitating, for ruining the moment, what if Mark feels it as a rejection, what if Mark walks away, what if-

Mark kisses him this time, light like a brush of petals against Donghyuck’s lips. He cradles Donghyuck’s face in his hands, leans his forehead against Donghyuck, eyes closed, takes him in with a deep breath, before he blindly dives down again, harder this time, heavier, just following the scent of Donghyuck’s blood, all instinct and no finesse at all. Donghyuck can feel his teeth, the faintest sting against his lips, and he shivers, but doesn’t draw away. If Mark wanted he could tear Donghyuck to pieces with those fangs, but he just laces his fingers on Donghyuck’s nape and sucks on his bottom lip, licks inside his mouth, smiles into the kiss like an excited kid tasting the snow for the first time. He stops to admire his handiwork, the way Donghyuck is flushed and panting, eyes glazed and unfocused. Donghyuck tried to wipe all his boyfriend’s smugness away with another kiss, but Mark avoids his lips and kisses the curve of Donghyuck’s jaw instead.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the day you came to see the apartment,” he murmurs, drawing Donghyuck closer when their lips are too numb for kisses. “I also wanted to…” He hesitates, nosing at Donghyuck’s jaw, his fangs growing in his mouth at the mere idea. “Don’t think that I don’t want to, Hyuck, because I really want you. I like you.”

He pauses, struggling to string the words together and Donghyuck realizes this is about the fight, about Donghyuck thinking Mark doesn’t want to bite him, doesn’t like him that way.

“You like me,” he repeats, because he needs to hear it again, in a spoiled, selfish way. Mark nods. “But you’re going to take it slow? For me?”

“For us.”

The way he says it, so sure and serious, feels like a promise.

“Us,” Donghyuck muses. “I really like how it sounds.”

“I’m glad you do, because I don’t really know what I’m doing,” Mark blurts out.

“Me neither, but…” Donghyuck raises their joined hands together and points at the park with his other hand. He feels high on happiness, so light he could fly away if Mark wasn’t holding his hand tight. “Romantic walk in the park? Kissing under the moon? I’d say we’re doing pretty well for two complete rookies.”

Mark smiles at that and lays a cold kiss on Donghyuck’s hair. “Yes, I think we are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is not the epilogue yet just more idk kisses + walks in the park i want to finish this fic already but i also want mark angrily fending off everyone trying to treat donghyuck to dinner bc he's dead set on being a proper vampire lover and following the romantic outdated vampire courting rules from 1800 before he munches him and those rules include inviting his human boyfriend to dinner and paying and holding his hand all the time. donghyuck is just in for the free food (but sometimes he hopes his bf was less proper bc he really has a bite kink and he's tired of waiting duh)


	11. Epilogue - One Year Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you start reading please take a moment to read the notes ;;
> 
> I've thought a lot about this fic and how I wanted to work on it. I don't physically have the time to keep writing it like I've always done, with a linear plot, mostly because I can only write sporadically and it would take me months to get the plot to advance and I know it would be frustrating for both you and me. At the same time, I can't feel it in myself to just end it because there are so many scenes that I still want to write (Donghyuck meeting the vamp family again, Mark getting "the talk" by nomin, Donghyuck getting "the other talk" by Taeyong, the romantic candlelight dinner that Mark is preparing in secret, that time Donghyuck dressed as a blood bag for Halloween, _the_ bloodletting scene that people have been asking for, just to name a couple), I just don't really have the time to write them in a coherent plot like I've been doing (or trying to) until now. That's why I've decided to just write this epilogue, mark the fic as concluded (so that even people like ***, who didn't want to read until completion, can read), and then I'll add the scenes I really want to write one by one when I'll be able to write them. I'm sorry, this fic was already so messy, and now it'll just become a collection of random moments stolen to these two dorks' married life, but it's either this or three months between one update and another. Let me know what you think about it, but please be nice ;;
> 
> Now, to happier things! 2000 kudos? Really? I can barely believe it? I can't really express my gratitude for all the people who have read this fic and felt like leaving a small token of appreciation ;; This epilogue is for all of you, thank you for the support, thank you for liking this messy piece of fiction, thank you for everything. A long time ago I said I would've written them sharing a bed, and even if it's still pretty much pg I did it, so enjoy!
> 
> Warnings: they're two adult people in a relationship who live together, it's kinda implied that they've been fooling around. Still. Nothing happens. We still live in the sfw neighborhood don't worry. Also this is self-betaed but I'm literally blind to my own mistakes so.

**one year later**

When Donghyuck wakes up, the sun is slowly slipping behind the line of the horizon, its last rays crashing and breaking against the skyline, long, sharp blades of light fragmented by even longer, geometrical shadows. It's that time of the day between the afternoon and the evening, when the darkness is still pale blue, shy, and the light is burning with red and pink and a touch of gold and everything feels at the same time saturated and soft, overlaid with aesthetic filters. 

There's leftovers in the fridge, but Donghyuck ignores real food in favor of chocolate. Milk chocolate, almost too sweet for him, but Mark loves it so much - he loves the taste of it on Donghyuck, the sugar in his blood. 

Donghyuck seats at the chair in the middle of the kitchen and watches the sun bleed out behind the buildings, listens to the sound of the cars speeding out downstairs as the shadows becomes denser and fuller, bolder, and, as his eyes get used to the advancing darkness, deeper.

The clock hanging on the wall is ticking eight when he gets up, throws the empty wrapping of the chocolate away and softly pads through the corridor, stopping at the first door on the right.

He doesn't knock. There's no need to knock, Mark wouldn't hear him anyway, it’s too early for him. Donghyuck slips inside quietly, making sure to close the door carefully at his back even though the sun has already set behind the hills. He walks slowly towards the bed, careful not to hit anything in the complete darkness of the room.

As he trips on something lying on the floor - clothes? Books? Mark's phone cord? This boy is so messy, Donghyuck will have to scold him later - a memory creeps at the edge of his mind. One year ago, before he and Mark started dating - before that whole big mess that led to him and Mark dating - he snuck into Mark's room while he slept. He doesn’t remember why he did that - maybe he had something to ask to Mark, maybe he was angry, maybe he was just curious. There’s so many things he’s forgotten about those days. It’s like some memories are so bright and vivid in his mind that everything else fades to the darkness. What Donghyuck remembers is the way Mark pinned him to the bed and kissed his neck, ninety percent instinct and ten percent an attempt to shut Donghyuck up and go back to sleep. Donghyuck had felt like his heart was going to burst into flames, like he was lighting up from the inside. Then Mark had woken up, and he had been so disappointed in Donghyuck, even asking him never to do it again.

Donghyuck chuckles under his breath at the memory, remembering how those words had been a knife stabbing him where it hurt the most, in all his insecurities. He wanted Mark to trust him even when he was at his most vulnerable and Mark had just freaked out instead. Turns out Mark was only afraid he'd lose control and kiss him by mistake. Or worse, bite him. What a moron. As if Donghyuck would have complained. 

Mark mercifully lifted the ban on bed sharing three months into their relationship. They still don’t sleep together - their schedules clash too much and Mark has the ugly habit of latching onto Donghyuck and not letting him go for hours, dead to the world and to Donghyuck’s whines - but at least now Donghyuck has the right to cuddle his very own vampire whenever he wants.

The lump of blankets and limbs lying on the bed is completely, unnaturally still, but when Donghyuck raises the corner of the duvet a single whine comes from it. Donghyuck ignores it and slips under the blanket, joining his boyfriend on the bed.

It's cold, like entering a tomb, and Donghyuck shivers, but doesn't shy away when Mark wraps his arm around him, even if it makes everything even colder.

"What?" he asks, in a whisper, when he realizes Mark is mumbling something, his voice too raspy and jumbled to make out any word.

"I said what time is it," repeats Mark, and his arms tighten around Donghyuck as he noses down his neck - inhale, exhale, Donghyuck just shivers.

"The sun has just set," Donghyuck says, eyes fluttering close when Mark lays a kiss right under his ear and another on the mole on his neck.

"You're so warm..."

"I was sleeping," Donghyuck answers. 

He can feel disapproval radiating from Mark in cold waves. His arms close around Donghyuck, bringing them even closer. For someone so skittish about skinship, Mark really loves to cuddle in bed.

"You shouldn't sleep in the afternoon, it'll fuck up your sleeping schedule," Mark murmurs, frowning against Donghyuck's nape.

Donghyuck tries to shrug but Mark is holding him too tight. He could reply that his sleeping schedule has been fucked up long before meeting Mark, but he doesn't want to start an argument and lose precious time.

“You know what day is today?” he asks, instead. He tries to wiggle his way out of Mark's grip, because he knows if he doesn't move Mark will probably fall asleep again, but it's like struggling against a statue. Mark doesn't even realize Donghyuck is trying to move until Donghyuck calls him.

"Let me go, come on!"

"No," Mark mutters, stubbornly, smashing his cheek against Donghyuck's hair and breathing happily. "What day is today? Am I supposed to know?"

Donghyuck giggles. “You kinda are, but don't worry… I knew you would forget, that's why I came here to tell you. Happy one year anniversary, Mark Lee.”

 _That_ at least gets Mark’s attention, and the boy stop nuzzling against Donghyuck’s jaw and pulls himself up.

“Wait, the fuck? When? Today? Today is our anniversary?”

He sounds so confused it's downright adorable.

“It is! Now would you please let me go so I can kiss you?”

But Mark snorts and pushes him down again, keeping him restrained so easily that Donghyuck can’t help but feel annoyed. It's too dark to see what face he's making, but when he talks, it's closer than Donghyuck expected, right against his ear, low and still a little sleepy, and endlessly amused. "Weren't you going to kiss me?"

Donghyuck tries to kick him - it’s been one year and he still hasn’t given up on trying to hurt Mark when he’s being a tease - but Mark's body keeps him down, his weight merciless and unforgiving.

"You’re an asshole," Donghyuck tries to say, but Mark kisses him mid-way and there's a moment of awkwardness in which Donghyuck's words are trapped between them and their lips don't fit and Donghyuck splutters, confused, but then one of Mark's hands cup around his face and the other cradle his head to angle his face up and they're cold, so cold against Donghyuck's burning skin.

The cold shiver turns into a moan when Mark kisses him again, tender and intimate, drawn out, like he's tasting him, like he wants to steal Donghyuck's sighs from his tongue and let them melt like candies in his mouth.

“I don't think I can let you go,” Mark whispers, an afterthought that sounds like a confession, against Donghyuck's cheek.

“I don't think I mind it that much,” Donghyuck answers, in the same tone.

No more restrained, his hands come up to card themselves in Mark's hair as he lets Mark suck on his bottom lip, sloppy from sleep and slow and heavy.

“What am I gonna do with you?" Mark mumbles, when he reemerges from Donghyuck's mouth, and Donghyuck wishes he could see him, his lips red and spit-slick, his eyes dark from hunger and that unrestrained desire he sometimes shows only to Donghyuck.

"Kiss me again?" he says, hopefully, but Mark sighs a little and rolls to the side, hiding his face against Donghyuck's neck.

"Not now," he says, he whines. "Later, all the kisses."

He holds Donghyuck tight against his chest again, moans against his neck, then licks a stripe from the collarbones to the jaw.

"Right now," he says, "right now I'm hungry."

☾

Donghyuck wakes up hours later to the soft clicking of fingers on a keyboard and the cold, artificial light of Mark’s laptop diluting the thick darkness of the room to intermittent shades of pale blue. He blinks, slow and unfocused, and he stirs, and the ticking stops. He closes his eyes again just as a cold hand comes to rest on the top of his head, half a pat, half a caress, tousling his hair and combing it again with cool, soothing fingers. Donghyuck groans and tries to raise his head to look at the alarm clock, but his limbs feel heavy and uncooperative. His neck hurts.

Mark’s hand travels down his temple to curl around his jaw. It smells like snow and flowers, like cathedrals in winter. Last year, during Professor Shin’s seminar, Donghyuck studied what happens to a body infected by vampirism, the way the virus takes over every single cell, tesselating them, reshaping them from the inside until even their genetic information has changed. He has seen it happen under his own eyes, magnified by the multiple lenses of the microscope, and yet he still doesn’t have a logical, empirical explanation for the way Mark smells, so vampire, cold and delicate and eternal. Mark would shrug and say it’s magic, but Donghyuck is a scientist and for him magic is just science no one has understood yet.

He turns, his eyes still closed, blindly following Mark’s scent until he bumps against Mark’s thigh. He’d like to drop himself in Mark’s lap but his laptop is in the way so he whines, high and throaty, and he hears Mark choke down a fond giggle.

“What time is it?” Donghyuck murmurs, his mouth so dry it makes sticky noises when he tries to form words. His eyes are still closed, everything feels heavy. The wound in his neck throbs.

“It’s too early,” Mark replies, softly, tucking Donghyuck’s hair away from his eyes. “You should sleep more, you need to recover.”

“Don’t wanna.”

Mark sighs and Donghyuck wiggles closer, smashing his cheek against his boyfriend’s leg and exposing his own neck in the process. It hurts so bad that it feels like ice is trickling down his entire body. He recoils, breath itching when Mark’s fingers skim over the tender, bruised skin, above the bite mark he left yesterday night. It's still swollen and it probably looks ugly, but Mark looks more smug than worried about it so it shouldn’t be as bad as that time they drove to the beach and Donghyuck decided to go skinny dipping. Mark followed him into the water, unusually eager, and bit him harsh and deep and long enough to make Donghyuck collapse and then panicked on his own. In the end, they had to spend a couple of hours at the ER and also visit the police station to release a statement, and they both got scolded by the police, the hospital staff, Mark's coven _and_ Donghyuck's friends.

Since that happened, Mark has been nothing but a nagging worrywart, so yesterday night was unexpected, though not unwelcome.

“If you're not going to go back to sleep, you should eat something.”

Donghyuck ignores the advice to whine some more, clenching and unclenching his fingers on the fabric of Mark's pajama pants, pulling at it to get his boyfriend’s attention.

When it’s clear that Donghyuck has no intention to move, Mark closes his laptop, bending a little to put it down on the floor, under the bed. His shirt rides up as he does that and Donghyuck seizes the chance and sneaks a hand under it.

“Behave.”

“You didn’t behave last night,” Donghyuck retorts.

Mark gets, if possible, even paler. It’s a pity he can’t blush, because Donghyuck would’ve gotten the fun of his life out of making him blush, but he can’t really get everything he wants all the times, can he?

“It’s not like you were complaining,” Mark retorts, scrunching his nose. “You ambushed me in my own bed. And you were basically begging me to bite you.”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault?”

Mark doesn’t answer. He pulls Donghyuck up with seemingly no effort - stupid vampires and stupid super strength, it never fails to make Donghyuck feels super hot and bothered - and tugs him into his lap.

“It’s always your fault,” he whispers, and it’s tender and fond and a bit low, like Mark sometimes talks when he wants Donghyuck to find him sexy. What an idiot. Donghyuck always finds him sexy. Mark’s mouth is cold against his cheek, the pressure barely there, and Donghyuck lets his eyes fall close and part his lips, waiting for a kiss on his lips, but Mark kisses down, tilting Donghyuck’s face to the side, exposing his neck, right where yesterday he made a mess.

(There was so much blood, Donghyuck remembers, on his neck, on the sheets and on Mark’s mouth, and Donghyuck could feel something inside his chest burning every time he felt Mark swallow against him, swallow _him_ , like he only needed Donghyuck to survive. He sort of did, in a way. This kind of power, Donghyuck doesn’t know how he can go back to living without it.)

When Mark’s lips touch the bruise he left on his neck, Donghyuck shudders so violently that he almost dislodges himself from Mark’s lap. Strong arms come around his torso, to keep him still, and Mark stops.

“Are you okay?” he asks, worried, and Donghyuck squints and nods, face burning, a pitiful moan trapped in his throat.

“Yes, I just... Can you please go on?” he asks, in a small, small voice. He waits for Mark to continue, biting his lips, curling his fingers against the tweed of Mark’s pajama top, but Mark doesn’t move until Donghyuck opens his eyes again. It doesn’t matter how many times they’ve done this, and it’s been, since that fateful day six months ago, _a lot of times_ , seeing how easily he can reduce Donghyuck to putty in his hands never fails to make him happy.

“Can you stop staring?” Donghyuck mutters, looking away, but Mark shakes his head playfully.

“I really, really like you like this. I like that you like this,” he says, low, dipping down to drop a kiss on Donghyuck’s nose. “It’s hot. It makes me want to swallow you whole.”

Donghyuck shudders, his eyes falling close again as his blood rattles under the skin like it's made of small glass beads, all tinkling and jingling and clinking against each other.

It's not often that Mark says something this brash and rough and honest. Something this dangerous. He doesn't need to resort to dirty talking to make Donghyuck moan, but sometimes he does it anyway, and more than dirty he sounds enchanted, like a child lost in wonder, like he can't believe he has this kind of power over Donghyuck. But he does. Oh, he does. Donghyuck doesn’t know if he can survive another round without going to the hospital, but if Mark were to ask he’d say yes immediately.

Mark, thankfully the most responsible of the two, revels in the possibility, but doesn’t ask. He licks the bite mark again, causing Donghyuck to twitch in his lap, grinding down as much as he can despite Mark’s hold on his hips, but he doesn’t bite. Donghyuck whines when he draws away.

“Why not?”

“You’re too weak right now. And i’m full.”

He’s lying. Once after last semester’s finals Donghyuck got drunk and Mark drank from him and also got drunk and then he drunkenly confessed Donghyuck a bunch of embarrassing things, including how often exactly he thinks about Donghyuck’s mouth and that his blood tastes so good that Mark could never, _ever_ get enough of it. Johnny laughed for several minutes when Donghyuck told him. It’s a statement of how deep Donghyuck is gone for Mark Lee that he doesn’t feel the least creeped out by the fact that his boyfriend dreams of sucking him dry. Instead, he feels kind of accomplished. Mark can turn his knees to jelly with one glare, but just the smell of Donghyuck’s blood make his eyes turn black with want, so who’s the real winner here?

“Not even a small bite?” he asks, tilting his head even more, offering his neck to Mark’s hungry gaze. It already hurts like a bitch, but it also feels so good when Mark feeds from him.

Mark’s smile widens and a small dimple appears at the left corner of his mouth. “You only want me for my fangs…”

“That’s not true, I also like your d-”

Mark kisses him before he can finish the sentence, which might be a small blessing because a sleepy Donghyuck is an unfiltered Donghyuck, and in forty minutes he’ll regret this whole conversation, but for now he’s just happy to kiss Mark back, slow and languid and still heavy with sleep. Mark chases Donghyuck’s warmth under his pajamas, skimming up his sides with ice cold fingers, licking inside his mouth, pressing him on the mattress, unrelenting.

“Little sun,” he murmurs against Donghyuck's lips. “I like you so much…”

Already his smell of magic and eternity is fading, the unnatural cold slipping from his fingers, melting against Donghyuck's skin, all soft and warm from sleep. It's Donghyuck's blood in his veins and Donghyuck's shampoo in his hair and Donghyuck is stupidly, absolutely in love with him.

“I like you too,” Donghyuck wants to say, but his eyelids get heavier and heavier and his tongue, his lips - where Mark leaves a last, sweet peck - are the heaviest, and they won’t move like he wants. Tomorrow, is his last coherent thought, tomorrow he will have to tell Mark how much he likes him. Mark already knows, but Donghyuck will tell him again. And again. _And again._

_I like you. Beneath the moon and under the sun._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that's it, with this last cheesy line I'll never be proud of we put a temporary dot at the end of this ride. Like I said, I will add random scenes whenever I feel like it! You can request a scene if you want (though it's not certain if or when I'll get around to write it) on my curiouscat (unless you're that anon, you're not welcome and Santa won't bring you gifts this Christmas) or on twitter or you'll just have to work out your own way. If you ask me in person I might even treat you for coffee!  
> It's been an amazing ride, people, let's meet each other again on Christmas day if I manage to write a bonus chapter for twt user pjsult who was kind enough to wish for it. If not, happy holidays to all the lucky people who have them and even for those who don't <3


	12. extra (1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, uhm, if you follow me on twitter or cc or any platform you'll know i lived a very stressful life here in korea, and that my housing arrangement (read: evil roommate) kept me from writing. it seems like... that situation.. is almost over... i don't want to say it out too loud but in three weeks i'll move to a single room and the thought makes me super excited and fills me with hope... i really want to go back to writing again ;; in the meanwhile, as out of practice and rusty as i am, i sat down and wrote this scene and I ended up publishing it unedited...  
> it's a little raw, but i hope you all can enjoy it as much as i enjoyed writing it. if you like it maybe leave a comment because i haven't published or written anything new in so long that i'm so worried about this lol  
> the biggest kiss goes to silvia, always, and to c and m who cheered me up while i wrote!, but i really love all my readers, thank you for supporting me a lot and waiting a lot of time for me ♥ HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

“I might have a biting kink.”

Donghyuck squirms and hiccups and folds himself against Mark’s side, blindly looking for the comfort of Mark’s cool skin against his heated skin, completely unaware of the storm brewing in Mark’s brain at his words.

“No,” Mark replies, and his fingers card themselves in Donghyuck’s hair. They’re sticky, covered in the glitter Jaemin must have squeezed onto his hair when they decided to go party. It’s fallen all over Donghyuck’s neck, his collarbones, probably down to his navel, maybe even his underwear. A normal human wouldn’t be able to see them, but Mark’s eyes are sensitive to the faintest trace of light, and the only way he can ignore the rainbow on Donghyuck’s body is close them. He lets out a heavy sigh. “No you don’t.”

“I do,” Donghyuck repears, voice sirupy and drawled, his fingers curling around Mark’s wrist in a weak attempt to distract him from the mail he’s writing. “I am obsessed with your mouth, I want it on me all the time, on my lips, on my wrists...”

He wiggles impossibly closer, ducking under Mark’s arm to hide his face against Mark’s chest, running his cheek against the cotton of Mark’s shirt.

“Especially on my neck and on my d-”

Mark covers Donghyuck’s mouth with his palm before he can finish the sentence and Donghyuck nuzzles into it like a needy puppy. He smells like soju, the fruity one that Mark hates, and he probably tastes like it too, and he’s completely wasted. Mark curses Jaemin and Jeno, for dragging his boyfriend to a club, and he curses himself for not going with them. If he had gone, he would’ve been able to distract Donghyuck from getting this smashed because a smashed Donghyuck is a nightmare, unfiltered and improper, a little wild thing. A smashed Donghyuck is the one who’s currently scrambling to sit on Mark’s lap, all shaky legs and clammy hands, almost knocking everything out of the table in his haste. Mark’s hands come to rest on the small of Donghyuck’s back to stabilize him, keeping him from falling from the couch and on the floor. He pulls him a little closer, and Donghyuck’s mouth falls open at being manhandled, his body writhing at the cold pressure of Mark’s fingers on his hips, eyelashes fluttering, head lolling to the side to expose his neck.

Mark closes his eyes before the image burns itself on his eyelids, but it’s useless. Even without seeing it, Mark can _feel_ it, with his seventh sense. He can feel the flow of blood in Donghyuck’s veins, the way red pulses in his neck and blossoms on his cheeks and collarbones, he can feel it rush down, to Donghyuck’s belly, to where Donghyuck is subtly trying to grind against Mark’s thigh, uncoordinated and sloppy and so, so drunk.

Mark’s eyes shoot open and his hands tighten on Donghyuck’s hips, not to pull him down but to push him back. He lifts his boyfriend like he’s nothing more than a doll, putting some space between them and keeping Donghyuck away even when the boy whimpers.

“We’re not doing this baby,” Mark whispers, drawing circles on Donghyuck’s hips to soothe his distress. “You’re drunk.”

“What difference does it make? We’re not doing this when I’m sober either,” Donghyuck says, hands shooting up to card themselves in Mark’s hair, pulling a little, trying to draw him into a kiss. 

And Mark cannot resist, he cannot really deny Donghyuck a kiss - just a kiss. Except, when Donghyuck has Mark in front of him, just a breath away, he doesn’t kiss him, but sighs wistfully against his lips, “You only indulge me when I’m like this.” And Mark wonders what Donghyuck means with _like this_. Needy? Helpless and drunk? So lost that Mark feels like the bad guy whether he says yes or whether he says no? 

Donghyuck pouts, so close that Mark would only have to open his mouth to taste it. “Why don’t you want me?”

And Mark’s grip tightens until he’s squeezing Donghyuck’s hips so hard the boy cries out, half a squeal, half a moan, helplessly trying to thrash in Mark’s hold. This Donghyuck, who smells like other people, like sweat and alcohol and cologne and makeup and barely like himself, who can afford to drink until he’s free to say everything that flashes on his mind, this Donghyuck, who wants unabashedly, shamelessly, with his whole body, with the hands carded in Mark’s shirt and the slightly damp hollow of his collarbones, with his thighs falling open on Mark’s lap and his back arching into his touch - a visceral, instinctual want, one that Mark has ingrained into him day after day of refusing his touch, of telling him no and no and again _no_ , no we can’t, no it’s dangerous, until Donghyuck is so starved for affection he takes Mark’s crumbs with a smile and stars in his eyes and drowns everything else in alcohol and clubs. This Donghyuck. Mark wants him desperately.

To push him down on the couch and cradle his face sweetly, slowly, like picking a dandelion from the side of the road and making sure that the slightlest breath of wind doesn’t scatter it around the world. Mark would turn his head to the side so carefully, revealing the curve of his neck. He’d kiss under Donghyuck’s ear, lick a wet stripe down his jaw just to make him giggle, he’d intertwine their fingers together. He’d bite. He’d take. And take, and take, and take. He wants to take Donghyuck apart, his life, his smile, his sunshine, he wants to drink them all.

He wonders if Donghyuck would get hard, harder than he is now. Donghyuck _did_ say he had a bite kink, after all. Mark wonders if he’d squirm, trying to squeeze his legs together to get some kind of friction, to relieve the pressure, he wonders if Donghyuck would moan prettily or just sigh breathily, voice trapped in his throat under Mark’s fangs, rolling against Mark’s tongue.

Something curls inside Mark, something deep, almost bottomless, and fierce, and sharp, and vivid, something that has nothing to do with bloodlust and everything to do with it. It’s been so long since he felt arousal that it takes him by surprise, paralyzes him. His body struggles, physically, to follow his emotions - there’s not enough blood, not enough _fresh_ blood inside him to actually get hard, but he can still feel the tendrils of something hot and electric coiling in his loins, making him feel unsettled, confused. He’s drowning in the possibility, the what ifs that is Donghyuck’s blood rushing inside his veins, Donghyuck’s warmth on his tongue, his flesh growing pliant and open for Mark. 

He’s so engrossed in his thoughts - pupils dilating, fangs already growing in his mouth - that he barely registers it when Donghyuck stops squirming and goes tense in his hold, at least until Donghyuck lets out a weak cry. 

“Mark, _hyung_ , _hyung_ , I’m going to throw up.”

Mark blinks, unsure, eyes widening in panic when Donghyuck’s hand goes to his mouth and he panickedly thrashes in Mark’s hold, ending up on the floor when Mark lets him go.

He doesn’t even have time to whine. Mark, finally realizing the urgency, picks him up and drags him to the toilet, threading his fingers through Donghyuck’s sticky, matted hair, feeling the glitter dust scratch at his palm as Donghyuck retches into the toilet bowl and cries.

“Come on, Hyuckie, like this, what a good boy.”

Donghyuck cries harder, his body fighting the urge to hurl again, but Mark massages his waist, keeps him there until he’s done and then helps him up, staying close as Donghyuck washes his face and quickly brushes his teeth. When they finally curl in Donghyuck’s bed together, Donghyuck still smells like club but also like fresh laundry and floral face detergent. There’s the tiniest hint of black tears on his face, at the side of his eyes, where he couldn’t properly wash the eyeliner out. The glitter catches the yellow cast of the lampposts outside and sparkles on the bridge of his nose like freckles of light. Mark almost kisses it away.

Donghyuck sniffles as he settles under the covers, pulling Mark down to lie with him.

“I’m sorry _hyung_ ,” he murmurs, too tired to elaborate. Mark would like to know if it’s for getting drunk and throwing up or for pushing Mark’s boundaries. Maybe it’s for the way Donghyuck clings to him, even now that he’s clearly on the verge of falling asleep, his fingers closing around Mark’s wrist and pulling it towards his chest.

Mark kisses his forehead and the crown of his head. That spike of arousal is gone, as fast as it came, but the urge to drink from Donghyuck hasn’t really gone away since the first day Donghyuck offered it. It only gets stronger, as Donghyuck pushes and pushes and pushes, and Mark edges every day towards his breaking point. 

He doesn’t know what will happen, the day he finally bites Donghyuck. Youngho says nothing will really change, other than, he said, Mark stopping being always so prissy at everyone. Donghyuck wants it, he’s made it clear so many times. For some reason, some inexplicable reason, Donghyuck trusts Mark with his life. It’s Mark that doesn’t trust himself. But Donghyuck wants, and Mark wants it too. He’s always thought it was a physical reaction, that it was simply hunger, bloodlust, but today it was different. It had been different. Today he had… he had wanted to bite Donghyuck and do other things to him. Wild things. Dark things.

Mark waits until Donghyuck has fallen asleep, chest rising and falling heavily, hands closed into small fists under the blankets. (Mark undoes them, intertwines their fingers together and slides his thumb over Donghyuck’s palm until he relaxes, and only then he lets go.)

It would be so nice, to stay. To fall asleep next to Donghyuck, wake up at the end of the morning, breathing each other. It would be so nice, to stay. The door doesn’t make a sound when Mark closes it.

Mark goes back to the living room, where his laptop has shut itself down after being ignored for so long. He stares at the black screen for a couple of minutes. The screen sends him back a confused image of an old hoodie hanging around mid-air, unable to reflect Mark’s vampire body. He contemplates turning the laptop on again - he really needs to send that email - but in the end he closes it and grabs his phone instead.

He opens the short contact list - merely the members of the coven, Donghyuck, Donghyuck’s best friends for emergencies, his brother’s family and his supervisor at work. He considers asking Johnny, but he already knows what Johnny would say, just as he knows what Taeyong would say. Mark has had enough of being told he just has to roll with it and he’ll learn. People learn from their mistakes, but Mark cannot afford to make mistakes. Not with Donghyuck, whose soul is as sharp and bright as quicksilver, but whose human body is nothing but a paper doll in Mark’s hands.

Mark calls Yuta, and to the curious, confused question coming from the phone, he only answers.

“ _Hyung_ , please teach me about sex.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long story short no one ever gave mark the vampire sex talk because he was too busy being a moody demisexual so now he knows nothing. mark snow.

**Author's Note:**

> NOW WITH BEAUTIFUL ART:  
> -[random markhyuck moments](https://twitter.com/yaori94/status/983837921454231552) custom made by the birthday girl @yaori94 on twt  
> -[cute kiss scene from chap 8](https://twitter.com/yaori94/status/1068653819570122752) by @yaori94  
> -[mark with pink slippers](https://twitter.com/reckfeck/status/986103487896440832) by the amazing and talented @reckfeck  
> PLEASE GIVE THEM BOTH A LOT OF LOVE they deserve the world ;;
> 
> \+ you can scream at me on twitter @ aprilclaws


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